Visionary Eyes
by stratusfish
Summary: He breathed it all in. "We could change everything, Shelke." Cloud and Shelke find themselves unexpectedly in a time ten years before Deepground. Timetravel. Gen. Pairings undecided
1. That was how Shelke found him

_This fic was created after judicious squealing over: Fifth Act, by Sinnatious, Fusion, by Knowing Shadows, Green Dreams, by , and Eir's Tomorrow, by Hades Pheonix. If FF7 fandom had big wallop time travel fics, that would be them. One finished, one abandoned, two still in the works. Ah. Especially fifth act-i love the idea of AC cloud traveling in more then just mind. You know how you start to hate a story after its over? And you reread it until you almost drain it's life completely, but still want more? _

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**visionary eyes**

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The Church had seen better days, but Cloud had never found a place more peaceful. The stratosphere was blue enough to make the water glitter invitingly, and while the small pond of fragrant, healing water was as beautiful as it was useful, sometimes Cloud closed his eyes and tried to remember the flowerbed he had fallen into, so long ago, just as Zack had done before him. Tried to remember Aeris, and her charming, contagious smile.

He opened his eyes, and realized he was no longer drowning in a pool of crystal clear water.

It hadn't been his intention to drown—not that Cloud had thought it possible, as the scented water's of Aeris' church were at most four feet deep, and completely avoidable given the circumstances—but when he had been pulled under, there hadn't been any way to get back through. It was as if the fountain had retracted into itself, rays of watery light fading into dim blackness, and Cloud's hands met a hard, solid surface instead of the flimsy, watery film it should have.

For a brief, startled moment, he wondered if this was how he was going to die, breathless, enveloped in darkness. Not fighting through the many floors of ShinRa, or stopping Meteor, or hell, even fighting Sephiroth the many times he had faced the brunt of the fallen General, but here, in the peaceful bliss of Aeris' Church, in the last remains of her. The thought wasn't entirely unwelcome, but Cloud fought it off nonetheless. He struggled, wondering when water had gotten so dark and air-like, when he realized he wasn't in water at all.

He pounded, fruitlessly, for a few more moments until he heard a wrenching groan, and light traced his outstretched palm.

He pushed, and there was a long creak of protest, as his vision regained itself to hurriedly create a world of blurred, smeared colors like shattered glass.

It took a couple moments of blinking for him to realize he was actually staring at _glass_, colored glass, to be exact, some of it painting his face in a kaleidoscope of light. Long windows of color lined the wall of the church, refined edges clear and unbroken.

He was still in the church, then.

Cloud looked around.

There was something imprecise about it, not quite right, as if the uneven surface had been upturned, smoothed, unworried. He counted the number of pews—unbroken ones, as many had been during Reunion—but he had never really kept track of them, and couldn't be sure if anything had been altered. He looked down at himself, and realized with a bit of disbelief that he had just crawled out of the ground, opening up a floorboard from what seemed to be his own dirt coffin. Jesus, had he turned into Vincent sometime when he couldn't remember? How long had he been down there, clawing at the dirt?

Confused, he looked up.

And drew in a harsh intake of breath.

The sky, which had been a clear stratosphere of everlasting blue, was now broken and dark, riddled with lines dragged through metal, heavy and pregnantly hovering right above the roof of the church.

_The plate._

Oh, _god._

He pulled himself out of the floor, met with the intense, overpowering smell of fresh flowers—a smell which had been gone for some time now, and even when he and Tifa would come in to tend to the last vestiges of Aeris, the flowers never really did smell the way they did when she was smiling beguilingly, kneeling amongst the gentle petals—that matched to the abundance of them which grew out of the dip in the floor.

A dip which should have been full of water.

For a few moments, Cloud stumbled, almost completely losing his balance, but caught himself against one of the pews, the sword on his back thumping against it loudly. It was good to know that at least, wherever he was and whatever had happened, he still had First Tsurugi strapped to his back.

Where the hell was he?

The church, obviously. But the church was changed… renewed, or perhaps, reverted?

He looked up once more, as if he couldn't quite believe it the first time.

It was the plate, the Shinra plate, blocking the ethereal sky and with it, almost all life bar the useless existence of the slums. How it was possible, Cloud had no idea.

But life had thrown him impossibilities, and this was no different from any other crucial juncture, and he gave himself a moment's pause before he attempted to gather his bearings and recount what had happened, trying to regain control of his breathing and think as logically as was possible.

He had left 7th Heaven angry that morning.

Perhaps angry was too strong of a word, as mildly annoyed was a more accurate terminology.

Barrett had woken him up ungodly early, his gun arm going off as he appeared to have been shooting some sort of bird. It didn't help that the following evening, Tifa had given him a minor sermon on the importance of his phone—which had been spurred by his continuous lack of calling, and the fact that earlier that day they had finally, _finally, _gotten Vincent a PHS—and how he should, at least, call in to tell them when he was going to be late, or not coming back at all.

He had been rather good at that lately, too.

Cloud had never had anyone to check up on, or anyone who'd want to check up on him, and the concept was so new to him that he wasn't very good at it.

Nonetheless, it didn't help his moody any, and neither did stumbling into the main bar, restless and unhappy.

As he did whenever he was feeling particularly disturbed, or just everyday in general, he maundered into the broken remains of sector 5, the church tilting a bit, but altogether sturdy with its long wooden bearings. It had seen better days, as most of its roof had collapsed—which may have something to do with Zack, and maybe Cloud, but mostly from the plate collapsing—and the interior didn't fare much better.

He had been replacing his Materia, stolen by Kadaj's brother and then re-stolen by Yuffie, and had been contemplating putting them back into his case but then altogether deciding it was best to keep them on his person. The last thing he needed was for someone _else _to get a hold of them.

That was how Shelke found him, standing over the water's edge, staring contemplatively into the clear depths.

Ever since Deepground, she'd been a constant presence at 7th Heaven. Cloud hadn't known her personally, never really did, now that he thought about it, but it seemed natural to take the young girl in after all that had happened to her. He may not have been directly correlated to her during the events which had spanned out, but he did know how it felt to be one of ShinRa's failed experiments, and knew the clean-cut wound which would sting forever like a number traced onto a hand, forever claiming you as a failure to the great Electric Company. It was weird to thing she was nineteen—twenty, even—when she was so small and tiny. It was weirder to think that she had evenly fought Vincent at some point in her life.

He had told her of its healing properties, pertaining especially to Geostigma and most Jenova-induced illnesses.

She asked if perhaps it could heal her, too.

He thought it was worth a try, and jumped into the water waste deep, beckoning her to follow. She had done so, slowly, as if not really believing that this water could cure anything, let alone a debilitating growth defect caused by ShinRa experimentation. But he insisted, and soon enough she was almost completely submerged into it, looking quite unhappy as the water was much deeper to her then it was to him, and then—

Wait a minute, Shelke!

"Shelke?" He called worriedly into the deserted church, unsure of where he would find her, when he couldn't even understand what had happened to him. The two had been standing in the water, and then what? Had they been pulled in? But by what though, a great tentacle monster? A monster wouldn't go near the church with the flowers growing in it, let alone a healing spring. Maybe Shelke hadn't ended up wherever he was, maybe she was still standing, nonplussed, chin-height in the water.

There was a groaning noise from beneath him.

It would make sense that, if he had appeared from the ground, so would she.

He wrenched up a few more floorboards, revealing a whole, but completely soaked, Shelke. The young looking girl twisted at the sudden burst of light, drawing her knees up in a position that reminded Cloud sorely of Marlene. He consciously reminded himself that this was Shelke, that woman who wielded double electric nunchuk and had fought Vincent-to a draw, he heard, in some retellings of it.

She coughed a little as she blinked. "Cloud? What—

She looked around, confused.

"But where did the water go…?"

Cloud shook his head. "I don't know what's going on." He admitted. "One moment we were in the water, and the next—" He gestured vaguely.

She stayed quiet for a moment, and Cloud took the moment to realize that, he too, was sopping wet.

"It doesn't make any sense." Cloud began quietly. "The flowers… they were gone before. And the water's not here either."

Shelke turned around, looking a bit in awe at the field of them, growing so strangely from the wooden floorboards. "I don't know what to tell you…" Her brows knitted. Cloud recalled that she had never been there for AVALANCHE, even though it seemed like she had been living with them, integrated with them for the better part of her life, even though her stay in 7th Heaven was little over a few months. She had never met Aeris, never saw her Ancient powers, or her crazy ability to speak to the Planet.

"Maybe the water did more then just heal the sick?" She guessed wildly. "Maybe it could regrow the flowers."

It made a bit of sense, or at least, more then everything else did. But Cloud shook his head. "But what about that?"

He pointed above them, to a crack in the roof of the church. A metal sky hovered silently above.

"I—" Her breath caught. She recognized it too, then.

What now?

"Oh, hello." The two snapped to attention, as a bit of light poured into the church.

Aeris stood, in her quiet gracefulness, countenance outlined in light, eyes wide and blinking at them curiously.

"The church doesn't get many visitors." Cloud was mesmerized by the eternity in those green eyes, a lifetime that he'd missed somewhere. "Are you two lost?"

Cloud made no move to answer her.

"Err—no," Shelke was obviously not as impaired as Cloud was. "We were just…" She looked around wildly. "Admiring the flowers."

Aeris nodded, as if she had almost expected this. "There aren't too many that grow around here." She sighed, coming closer.

"Oh?" She stood some meters in front of them, taking in their appearance. Cloud wondered if there was recognition in her voice. What was she doing here? Walking amongst the living, floating towards them. Was he dreaming? Was this all part of his head, and he was still wading waste deep in the pool of water, the last of her that remained on the planet? Was she coming to take them back to the lifestream?

"How did you two manage to get so wet?"

After a few minutes which Cloud couldn't really recall, Aeris had managed to find a bucket large enough to hold their soaked clothes, and had given Shelke her coat to wear, as Cloud stood awkwardly in nothing but his boxers. If he had known he'd be walking around in them, he'd have picked a better pair. It would have been terribly amusing and even more embarrassing, with Aeris giggling and Shelke smiling, had he not been so confused.

Aeris was too.

"That's quite a lot of materia." She noted softly, and Cloud sent a quick look to her hair, which was pinned up at the top of her head with a gleaming gem.

White Materia.

Cloud nodded wordlessly to the pile at his feet. They rolled at his toes, shining bright green as most magic materia were meant to do, all completely mastered. Fire, Bolt, Ice, Quake, and All were twinkling back up at him. He wondered what Aeris would say if she saw Ultima, Comet, and Full Cure, all completely Mastered, already equipped to First Tsurugi.

"We travel a lot." Shelke answered for him, again, sending a furtive glance in his direction. "We pick them up from time to time, and they're good for fighting the occasional monsters."

Sure, he was a man of few words, and everyone from AVALANCHE, hell, anyone who ever met him, was aware of this. But this was a bit ridiculous.

"Are you new to the city?" Aeris prompted kindly.

Shelke nodded again. "Yes.. my brother and I, we just came from—

"Nibelheim." Cloud cut her off.

"I've never heard of it." Said the brunette with a charming smile. "Tell me more about it?"

"There isn't much to say." Cloud shrugged. "It's a mountain town, not much there besides a Reactor."

Somehow during the course of a few hours, they managed to spin a heartfelt tale of a brother and a sister, coming to Midgar in need of work and a better life. Probably a pretty standard immigrant tale, and Aeris listened with an empathetic ear. Shelke noticed Cloud seemed almost pained every time he looked at her, as if he had some sort of deep, long suffering relationship with the girl they had just met. Shelke tried to think of a time when she'd seen the long haired brunette—the girl did look awfully familiar, and her name sounded as if she'd heard it quite a few times as well—but couldn't think of any.

Eventually, Aeris had to take her leave, but she did invite them to stay the night at the church if they needed to.

"It is a lovely place," Aeris smiled, with a whimsical sigh. "It's a shame there aren't more."

By the time she had stood from her pew, their clothes were mostly dry, but had left a large, full tub of water.

"It smells good." The brunette blinked at it, as if taken aback. "Like... pressed flowers."

Cloud shifted uneasily.

Aeris heaved the tub, no small feat for such a small woman, with quite a bit of help from Cloud, to the flowers, where she judiciously dumped the whole thing onto the grateful lot of them. Cloud watched in fascination as the flowers seemed to glow with the healing spring water that would come to take their place.

"That'll keep them healthy for a few days." She said brightly, before catching sight of Cloud's eyes.

There wasn't any way to avert them, and she stared long and hard into their abnormally bright depths.

She must have realized that the both of them carried an unnatural brightness to their eyes, but she said nothing of it, bidding them a safe night and closing the door behind her.

Almost immediately after she left did Shelke whirl on him.

"You know her." The small girl began, before shaking her head. "No, that's not right. _Knew _her. We're in the past."

The blonde did nothing to assert or refute her claims, only staring off into the distance with his Mako bright eyes.

For a faltering moment, there was nothing but silence.

"How do we get back?" Shelke asked helplessly. Brokenly.

He shook his head. "Don't know."

"Can we?" She looked down at their feet—at least they were wearing clothes now, "I mean… how did we get here in the first place?"

"It must have something to do with the water." Cloud mused. "I'm not sure how its possible, but I remember feeling like I was drowning. It was like the water had turned solid, and then next thing I knew, I was crawling out of the ground.

"The pool would have started around there." She pointed to where they had upturned a good amount of the flooring.

"It's gone now though." Cloud pointed out wisely, and Shelke sent him a flat, obvious look.

"We're stuck, then."

A dark look past his features. As if he had tested the fates. And lost, again.

"There's nothing we can do about it now." The blonde rubbed absently at Ribbon, which clung to his arm. "We'll need to get some sleep, and think better in the morning."

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_It's short, I know, but there is more to come, very soon. Good so far?_


	2. At one point, Cloud would have given the

_Aeris met Zack a bit earlier, okay? He still fell through and everything... just on a different mission I guess._

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The morning provided no answers, but a crick in Shelke's back that wouldn't go away no matter how much she twisted it, and a pew warmed from her restless squirming on it for the better part of the night. It was a lot harder to sleep when there was so much on her mind. Usually, in Deepground, she'd prefer to spend those kinds of nights with the silence as company, the only noise the thrumming of thousands of machines that carried her into the world network.

Cloud slept like the dead, silent, unmoving, and completely still. Shelke knew it was a rouse, as like all Soldiers (or fake ones, in this case) he would wake at the drop of a pin.

When he opened his eyes, he didn't have an answer to how they had gotten there, but he did have a plan.

"We'll need to figure out what the date is." He began. "If Aeris is still alive.. and judging from her age…" He looked away then, as if it hurt to even think of her. "We can't be too far off from Sephiroth's defection. A year or two, maybe. That leaves eight years give or take until Meteor."

Shelke nodded wordlessly, unsure of what to say.

"What can we do, Cloud?" She hugged her knees.

Shelke was strong, Cloud knew in the back of his head, strong enough to face Vincent and strong enough to survive through Deepground, but seeing her so small and frail was such a juxtaposition to her regularly fierce reputation that Cloud was at a lost at what to do. She wasn't anywhere near as naïve as Marlene or Denzel, even though she looked the part, and he doubted she'd appreciate him throwing a rough arm over her and telling her that everything would be okay, as he was prone to do whenever Marlene scraped a knee or Denzel sulked in the corner after a lecture from Tifa.

"I'm not sure." He said eventually, leaning against the pew, and staring into the familiar ceiling of the church he treasured. He eyes traced the cracked part where Zack had fallen in, where a bit of the upper plate could be seen. He breathed it all in. "We could change everything, Shelke. Nothing's happened. Deepground is still in its infancy—hell, you're still probably in your infancy. The Wutai War is still in its climax and Jenova is still out there…"

He stood then, a stormy tumult of expressions in his eyes, but mostly a deep sense of purpose resided within him, and Shelke didn't have the heart to refute that hey… she was actually nine or so at the moment, not a baby. She wasn't that young. So many events, useless deaths that could be avoided, all now in his grasp to change. Aeris, Zack, Nibelheim…

He strapped First Tsurugi onto his back, felt around for his Materia and then turned towards Shelke, who had stood too.

"Well, first of all," She dug into the pocket of her dress, wiggling out some gil. "I think we need to go shopping. It sounds like you've got a long plan."

Shelke was right.

Cloud had ideas of grandeur, of big plans that needed to be taken one step at a time. He needed to get to Nibelheim before anything else, but to do that, they needed money for the trip.

Not only that, but they needed equipment too. Ribbon was priceless, as was his Bolt Ring, which glittered on his finger, but it wouldn't Revive him in a fight like a phoenix down, nor would it help on the ride across the ocean. Shelke found a pair of Nunchuks, and Cloud grimaced when he recalled her electrically-charged versions at home—which looked painless but were lethal like hell, even on a mako-enhanced soldier like him. It also helped that the two managed to pickpocket enough to get them across the sea. He had a pair of Crystal gloves which would sell for a hefty price, but he didn't want to risk it yet. Shelke was eying her new Nunchuks with an eye of devilry, mako-blues almost sparkling at the thought of using them.

They'd leave tomorrow for Nibelheim.

It was unsurprising that on their way back from Wallmarket, they found Aeris kneeling among her beautiful flowers, humming slightly as if she sat in a luscious meadow, sunny and worriless. Or perhaps it was surprising, seeing as though the girl was long dead, a fact which Cloud mourned for the better part of his life. It still hurt to look at her—a constant reminder of his greatest failures, wrapped up in a beatific smile. It hurt further to know that this Aeris hadn't lived through AVALANCHE with him, hadn't whispered into his ear as he took down a Bahamut, or saved him from Kadaj's materia.

"I was wondering if you guys had just up and left." She stood, pouting. But, like all expressions on Aeris, it slowly morphed back into a smile. "Did you go shopping?"

Cloud nodded, as Shelke dropped the bags she had been carrying. "We're leaving tomorrow."

Her brows furrowed. "So soon? But I thought you said you were looking for work…?"

"It's only temporary," Cloud's eyes were focused somewhere on her field of flowers. "We'll be back by the end of the month."

But most likely wouldn't be staying at the church any longer. It was safe and resilient, but this was mostly due to the ever watchful Turks that patrolled its borders with keen eyes. They were lucky that they had missed their checkups so far, but if they stayed any longer they'd be pushing their luck. And if Cloud knew Tseng, as he did, the man's soft spot for Aeris would keep her at least relatively safe for the time being. He was aware that the man was still prolonging his mission to bring Aeris back to the ShinRa labs.

Aeris nodded, still looking worried. "If you're sure…"

She looked between the two of them, and rested on him for a moment longer then she should have. Cloud wondered what she saw. A weary traveler? A remnant of Zack? Cloud, as he was?

"You guys be careful, okay?"

"We will." Shelke agreed.

Cloud vacillated for a few seconds, before he moved to Aeris, at the bank of the flowers. He pulled a ring out of his pocket—not very lustrous, and a dulled, tarnished silver in color—and gave it to her. She looked at a bit admiringly, for it thrummed in her hand, like some sort of promise.

"Wear it when walking around here," He said to her confused expression. "It'll protect you."

She slipped the Protect ring onto her slim forefinger. She probably didn't know of its properties, but Cloud felt better knowing that she had it on, at least.

The flower girl made to leave, before pausing at the edge of the door. "I never did catch your names." She turned around, curious.

"Err—Cloud." The blonde looked flustered.

"Shelke."

She looked at the both of them for a long time. Cloud shifted uneasily, feeling as if he could see the Planet, in its large, eternal splendor, watching him back from those green eyes. "It was nice to meet you." She said, sincerely.

Long after she left the church, as she met Zack at the park, she wondered who the mysterious blonde traveler was. He and his sister had eyes which glowed like Soldier, and while he was an intimidating figure with a large, broad sword and a small army's worth of Materia, the Planet was just as confused about him as she was. She could sense a lonely, lost man inside of him, obscured by his large frame. There was something clean about him, as if the Planet had cleansed him, yet something remained terrible inside him, something which couldn't be cleared so easily.

Aeris, though, felt as if he was just a little bit lost is all. He looked at her pained, like a broken soul who was meeting the catalyst to his life. She didn't know what to make of him, but he was so… lonely looking. Even with his sister there, she got the impression he mostly travelled alone.

Maybe he was an ex-Soldier? On the run?

"Aeris?" Zack rubbed her shoulder, and she looked up.

She shook her head, smiling. "Sorry. I was just lost in thought."

"Don't work yourself too much now." Zack joked, "It looked like you were a million miles away."

"Oh, maybe not that far." Perhaps a couple hundred yards, considering that the Church was a bit of a walk from here.

Zack paused, and before she knew it he was holding her right hand gently, almost in wonder. "Hey, where did you get _this_?"

For a moment, Aeris flushed. What could she say? A strange traveler gave it to her? Zack would probably think the guy was hitting on her. "I—uh, found it. At the church. I guess someone must have left it."

"That's one crazy thing to leave!" The Soldier second exclaimed. "That's a protect ring. It'll cast Barrier whenever your in trouble."

The Soldier thumbed his chin. "Huh, it's a pretty useful thing to have walking around down here."

Aeris nodded numbly, unsure of what to say. Cloud hadn't been kidding when he said it would protect her.

… But why would he give it to her?

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It was so early that, even if the Plate didn't successfully block out the sun, it wouldn't even be up anyway.

The sea didn't bother Cloud like it used to. Motion sickness, at one point in his life, had been so terrible that he'd get green in the face with a few bumps in the road. That was before the years spent scratching his skin in a nauseating pool of pure mako. After that, even the worst of Cid's piloting hardly caused even a roll in his stomach, so he wondered why, staring out the boat window, something tightened in his gut. There was something uneasy about the sea, its vastness perhaps, how the chortling waves dwarfed all humans and monsters alike.

Shelke had been almost completely silent the entire ride, not that she was a Yuffie-like chatterbox in the first place, but Cloud could tell there was something weighing heavily in her mind. Not that his was empty thoughts, either, but Cloud had resigned himself to the fact that his life was never properly his, nor were the things that happened within it ever really in his control. Most likely these notions applied to Shelke as well, an experiment herself for almost the entirety of her life.

To be completely honest, Cloud knew very little about the girl. Out of all the inhabitants of 7th Heaven, and all the travelers who had ever helped AVALANCHE, Shelke was the one he knew the least about. It may have something to do with the fact that she was the most recent of the AVALANCHE fold. What Cloud did know, aside from the obvious, was what little Vincent would ever reveal to him. They had… did have… some sort of strange bond which Cloud couldn't really understand. Shelke looked at him the way Aeris used to look at him, like she knew something about him that he didn't. She was killer with her Nunchuks, or any weapon really, and was a Tsviet—which was something like the Deepground equivalent to a Soldier First.

But even if he didn't know much about her, he couldn't just watch her stormy, depressing expression without saying anything.

"Thinking deeply like that will give you wrinkles." He watched the waves, but he could almost feel the smile on her face.

"I don't think I'll ever need to worry about that." There was a tangy bitterness to her voice.

"What are you thinking about?" He prodded, unsure of what else to say.

She shook her head. "Everything, I guess. What's happening back at the bar, if there's anything happening, if this is all some sort of dream," She flicked her thigh, eliciting the normal response of a sharp sting. "If I'm still stuck in the labs, somewhere, beneath the plate…"

At that, she sighed. "There's nothing we could do about it. It's too far into Shinra. But I just…"

Cloud could understand what it was like to have a body mangled from experiments.

Travelling the world made the three days travel inland to Nibelheim seem very marginal in comparison, even though he spent most of it worryingly anxiously over what he'd find. The two made their way through the port at Costa Del Sol, and Cloud watched the claret red sun sear the sky crimson with an eerie feeling, as if he'd seen it before. Well he had at some point, but why could he recall Sephiroth, staring down at him from a pier, a wry smile on his face? The blonde shook his head. It must be one of Zack's memories. The more he thought about Zack and Sephiroth the more his stomach twisted, and he looked away from the sky to return to Shelke, who was picking up her pack and twisting through the crowds.

Would it be burned to the ground? Rebuilt in a paradox of what it once was? Or an exact replica of what it had once been?

"Do you think it was a good idea to give her that Protect Ring?" Shelke asked him, as they hitch hiked a ride up to the Reactor village with a farmer. And then, after a pause, "Who is she, anyway?"

"She was a close friend of mine, before she died." Cloud's eyes closed. "A Cetra, too."

"I heard that there was one still running around." Shelke mused. "Not that we worried ourselves over Hojo's experiments in Deepground. But the WN has always kept us very well informed. She is… Professor Gast's daughter, then?"

"I figured we could spare it." Cloud made no move to respond to what she had said about Aeris. "I still have most of my equipment. Do you?"

Shelke fingered her Star Pendant, which hung around her neck with a rope of leather that Tifa had given her. It looked Gongagian, and if Cloud remembered correctly, the small outpost village was the only place to get one. "I've got a Fire Ring, too. But that's it."

Cloud nodded. He didn't know how much they'd need them, but there were the occasional monsters which plagued the mountains of Nibelheim. Cloud supposed that they were hardly a challenge for him anymore though, and they'd be able to take even a Nibel dragon down pretty easily.

The farmer dropped them off at the outskirts of town, where the mountains stood in sharp relief to the watery sky. The air was cold, and stung at the back of his nose.

"The first thing we should do is find Vincent." Cloud pulled his Sword back into its harness. "Wake him up. I'm not sure if he'd help us, but at the least we'll have some backup."

"Backup for what?" Shelke fell into step behind him. "What are you planning, Cloud?"

"To destroy Jenova." He said with an air of finality.

"So no one can find it? So… Sephiroth can't find it?"

Cloud didn't say anything, moving past the houses and onto a worn mountain pass with practiced ease. Shelke had forgotten that the blonde boy had grown up here, in this stifling small community, closed in by the tall spires of snow capped mountains. He moved as if he spent a large part of his life in the wilderness, which was probably true. Shelke didn't know much of Cloud's history, aside from what she could dig up in the WN, after a couple Snyaptic Net Dives. The Worldwide Network provided explicit records of Cloud's keep in Hojo's grasp, which were mostly well documented scientific procedures and test graphs. There was also information on him in the Shinra database, from the time she assumed he was a Soldier there.

Aside from that, and the general wanted posters for AVALANCHE, there wasn't many resources on the elusive hero of the planet.

And even though, for the last couple months, they had lived in the same house, Shelke saw him so little that he might as well have been an occasional ghost in the attic which came to scare Marlene (or at least, the girl insisted it was so).

The mansion was strategically hidden from all prying eyes, to the point that Shelke's eyes couldn't even find the trail any longer.

She certainly wasn't made for a withering hike up the side of the mountain—she wasn't made for anything besides fighting and net dives, really—and Cloud's long strides didn't help any. Only the thought of Vincent could make her trek up these rocky mountains. Shelke wanted to blame it all on the fragments of Lucrecia which had lodged into her mind—but she knew she couldn't. She bit her lip. The only other time she'd ever been in Nibelheim was for Vincent, with the lingering thoughts of Lucrecia everlasting in the back of her mind. Shelke sighed.

And even then, she didn't enjoy the hike up to the Crystal Caves.

"Hold on." They stopped in front of the mansion, as Cloud made quick work of a parade of Nibel Wolves.

Shelke stood in the background, a bit miffed the blonde thought she couldn't fight. She supposed it was his nature, after all, he spent most of his life protecting the useless majority of the planet.

The interior of the mansion wasn't dusty, and in fact, looked as if it had been up kept some time ago. Shelke immediately noticed the glimmer of security cameras dotting the entirety of the inside, and for a brief moment, she felt like Lucrecia, a tightening, trapped sensation working its way through her throat. As if she was trapped again, once the scientist but now the experiment. Cloud moved through the hallways expertly, and she followed numbly, eventually coming to what seemed to be a trap door in the wall, he pushed it open, and revealed a heavily dusted room full of coffins.

She felt her throat working up—Vincent was here, somewhere, sleeping away his sins.

She didn't even know if she could face a Vincent which didn't remember anything of Deepground, of her connection to Lucrecia.

Cloud noticed her hesitation. "Do you know where the control room is?"

She nodded.

"Go up there, and erase all the footage. Could you perform a SND here?"

"If there's a connection, which I assume there is, yes." And to be sure, this 'abandoned' lab would most likely still have a high speed connection. "However, I may need to rewire the system. It could take a while." She ended dubiously.

"That's fine. Try to find all the information you can, okay? It'll be helpful to know what's going on at Shinra right now."

She backed out of the room, using Lucrecia's memories to find her way through the mansion, graciously thanking Cloud for a way out of meeting Vincent as she did so.

Meanwhile, Cloud tried to recall which of the coffins Vincent had resigned himself to eternal sleep in. How that was possible, Cloud would never understand. While physically, he knew that the amount of mako in his system would be able to sustain him the way natural food did. It was the same reason why Shelke couldn't live without mako every day—because her body used it as sustenance. But mentally though the man must have gone crazy after nearly thirty years of complete and utter silence. He ripped the face off of one, only to be met with a small community of spiders. The next proved to be futile, and so did the one after. There must have been a dozen, and just when Cloud was sincerely getting frustrated—and a bit worried; perhaps something had changed? And Vincent had moved, or worse, was killed?—did he finally wrench the top off and stare into deep crimson eyes.

It was déjà vu all over again, as he nearly fell back in surprise as the ex-Turk rose slowly from his self-induced death, eyes blinking to take in the dim lighting.

Eventually, his eyes turned to Cloud, a flat stare that Cloud had faced the brunt of many times before.

"What do you want?"

"I need your help, Vincent."

The man stared blankly at him, before moving to return into the depths of the coffin. "I cannot help you."

Cloud sighed. Vincent closed his eyes, looking still as the dead.

"Sephiroth needs your help." At the name of Lucrecia's precious child, Vincent's blood red eyes snapped open. "No… the planet, and everyone on it needs it."

"Sephiroth." Vincent's voice was raspy from disuse. "You said… is he still alive?"

"For now, yes." Finally, at least, Cloud seemed to spark some amount of interest in the vampiric looking Turk. "But not for long if things continue the way they are."

Cloud conveniently left out the fact that he'd be the one to kill Sephiroth.

"And Hojo?"

"Him too."

Vincent looked contemplative, staring around the dim room full of coffins, as if it held answers. Eventually, he sighed and closed his eyes.

"I can't. I need to—

"And atoning for your sins by sleeping in a coffin for thirty years is going to help anything?" Cloud snapped at him, losing his patience.

"Thirty years—?"

"I'm going now to destroy Jenova—before Sephiroth has the chance to find her and be manipulated." Cloud sighed. As much as he didn't want to say it… "He hasn't done anything yet. That could all change…" A dark look passed his features. "And I intend to stop him if that happens."

"Stop him?" Vincent sat up further. "What do you mean by that?"

Cloud remembered his last conversation with Vincent when he had woken him up. All those years in the past—err, in the future now—and Vincent hadn't changed at all. It had taken so much persuasion, and in the end, Vincent hadn't come with them. He only joined after, when Cloud was about to leave. And even then it was only for revenge against Hojo.

Talking to the ex-Turk was a moot point.

"To kill him."

At that, Cloud turned the corner out of the dusty, stifling room and made for the heart of the mansion.

He pulled his PHS out of his pocket. It was a miracle it hadn't been destroyed by the water, but he supposed the thing was entirely too resilient, anyway. He dialed Shelke's number, and waited for a few moments until she picked up.

_"I've erased all the security tapes," _She said by way of greeting. _"And I've also managed to locate a lot of data on ShinRa. Should I tell it to you now?"_

"No, wait until we have more time." Cloud descended further into the darkness of the reactor. "I need you to open the Reactor doors."

A slight pause. _"Done."_

Cloud paused. "Oh, and Shelke?"

_"Yes?" _Came the immediate response.

"I need you to do one last favor." The blonde thought for a moment, attempting to explain hot to find Odin. "There's a summon materia in this mansion, and I need you to find it."

_"If you are speaking of Odin," _Came the amused reply. _"I have already retrieved it. You may recall that Lucrecia Crescent's memories still reside within me, even though they may not be overpowering. It was she who placed the summon in the mansion in the first place."_

Cloud blinked. "Huh..."

The blonde kicked open the door, which groaned in protest, but wasn't locked as it had been the last time. He shut the PHS, and spent a moment just tracing the lines of the door, remembering it from a past he wished he'd forgotten.

The shelves were lined with bubbling tanks of mako, distorted figures floating, suspended in a constant state of pain. Cloud peered into one of them, recalling a time when he'd flinched back at the horrendous, warped face residing inside it. Perhaps in some form of sympathy, Cloud wrenched open one of the doors, a pool of acidic mako pouring at his feet. The monster flopped, before eventually turning to Cloud and attempting to swipe at him. Cloud kicked it back to the ground, where it twitched.

Sephiroth had showed them to him, once, and he had tactlessly called them monsters to the General's face. If anything, he had just spurred the silver-haired man further.

He continued onwards, trying not look into the small openings in the glass.

A movement, behind him, and he whirled around to see the monster he had thought dead striking at his face.

It was shot cold, and slumped to the ground, now completely lifeless.

Cloud looked up to see Vincent hovering in the door way.

"I'll help you." The man said. "If you promise to keep Sephiroth from harm."

Cloud wanted to point out that the General hardly needed anyone to protect him, but said nothing of it, as Vincent wasn't aware of Lucrecia's only living legacy and his successful military career. Cloud wanted nothing more then to kill Sephiroth as well—he didn't know if just Jenova was enough. The last thing he needed was another form of Reunion all over again. But Vincent was adamant about this, and he needed Vincent just as much.

"Fine." He conceded. "And you'll help me take down Jenova."

Vincent nodded wordlessly.

Cloud turned back to the stairs, climbing up them. "It'll be easier to get to Jenova," He gestured to the heading over the place where she was kept. "Hojo, however, will be more difficult. He's probably still stuck deep in the heart of Shinra." Cloud sighed. "We'll deal with him later then."

"Vincent…" Cloud paused at the threshold to the grave sight of the alien life force which had caused so much destruction. "If I… start acting strange, or stop attacking Jenova, will you promise to stop me?"

Vincent blinked at him. "If that's what you want."

Cloud nodded.

Vincent looked skeptical. "How do you know all of this?"

"At one point, I had to kill Sephiroth by throwing him into this reactor. And after that, a second time to prevent the planet from being destroyed by Meteor. A third, to stop the Reunion of Jenova cells." Cloud sighed. "There are things that I'm hoping to prevent this time around."

"This time around; meaning it has already happened." Vincent intoned darkly.

Cloud said nothing.

The blonde opened the door, looking up at the metal plate and steel sarcophagus that covered over Jenova's tank.

He tore the mask out of the way, revealing a tank with a mangled, blue bodied alien life force that had once been human submerged in mako. There weren't any words to describe the half of the body that floated inside the tank—it was so dreadfully ugly that for a moment Cloud couldn't believe that this was Jenova, the being that had caused the world to almost end. The plate covered her eyes, but she was wholly alive under it. Perhaps not in body, but in mind.

Her voice was still there, but muted, as Cloud had never had very many of her cells—no, just Sephiroth's—and the water had ridden him of his Geostigma.

Vincent had noted his long pause, and Cloud heard the warning click of Death Penalty's safety.

He shook himself out of his reverie.

Without thinking, the blonde sliced through the dais with First Tsurugi, cutting a line in the floor between the suspended Jenova and he and Vincent.

The plate they stood on groaned and buckled as Cloud continued to cut through the metal suspenders. Finally, with one last slice, the entire plate dipped, and Jenova's tank as well as the platform it stood on slipped backwards, and into the depths of the mako reactor. Cloud and Vincent leapt back, onto the safety of the main plate. Cloud wondered if Hojo would be able to find her under millions of miles of mako.

He hoped not.

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It was strange that Vincent looked the exact same he would a decade from this day, dark hair falling in his face and his stern, crimson eyes emotionless like red materia. His cape covered most of his face from view, until all that one could discern between his dark bangs and cloak was the refined bridge of his nose and the red of his eyes. He stood, unwavering, as the three of them surveyed the foyer of the mansion. Vincent had covered up most of the tracks, as Shelke had erased all the footage, as well as clearing any evidence that she had tampered with the WWN from here.

"Vincent, this is Shelke."

The man's eyes moved to her, and she held them for as long as she could.

It was painful to think of him through Lucrecia, so she opted to think of him through the moments she knew him by—fighting him in the hallway, the steady aim of his gun missing her by a few inches as she dived out of the way, parrying her strikes with his metal claw—and wondered if he'd think any differently of her if she had known him before he was Chaos.

"Shelke is—will be—an operative of Deepground."

The short brunette turned sharply to Cloud. "You told him, then?"

"Very little." Vincent's low tenor interrupted. Cloud had filled him in rather sparsely on their way up the floors of the mansion.

Shelke wasn't surprised.

"He knows of Jenova, and Sephiroth's part in all that." Cloud leaned against the wall. "We've taken care of Jenova, but even though her corporeal body has been destroyed, it only takes one cell for her to continue to live."

"What should we do, then?" Shelke mused aloud. "Is it wise to change anything?"

"We already have." Cloud pointed out. "By waking Vincent, and by destroying Jenova. Those are two key events."

"And how many key events are there to change?" Shelke refuted quickly. "Genesis is already degrading, the Wutai War is almost over, and Hojo is still alive. Not to mention that Deepground is nearing its prime."

"You speak of this Deepground organization." Vincent turned to Cloud. "What is it?"

"A secret Soldier experimentation funded by President Shinra." Shelke muttered bitterly. "They take promising Soldier recruits and inject them with 'G' cells—essentially making them into Genesis copies, although the correlation between Genesis and us is still to be uncovered."

"Us?" Vincent echoed.

"Shelke was part of them," Cloud explained, before furrowing his brows. "Or, will be part of them."

"The date is June 7, 0000." Shelke recited what she'd found from her synaptic net dive. "Hollander's research suggests that Genesis' first encounter with degration hasn't happened yet. I suspect that, at this moment, I am currently being shipped to Deepground."

Vincent frowned. "And Hojo?"

The blonde shook his head. "Probably still protected in the Shinra building. It'd be impossible to get to him now."

"We're at an impasse then." Said Shelke flatly. "From here, both Deepground and Hojo are out of our reach."

For a long moment, the three sat in silence. Shelke was right—there wasn't anything they could do about it now. Vincent was an insurmountable ally, as an ex-Turk and as the friend he would come to be to both of them. Having Jenova's corporeal body would, at least, deter Sephiroth a little bit.

Cloud knew that the only way to stop Meteor was to stop Sephiroth, and to stop Sephiroth, he'd have to be able to keep close tabs on him. Not only that, but he'd promised Vincent that he'd protect Lucrecia's legacy. Cloud couldn't deny that a part of him, a part he had thought died a little bit each time his sword cut down the general, still wanted the recognition to light up the man's eyes. But Sephiroth, like most of the Shinra personnel, was inaccessible in the Shinra tower. While storming the tower as he'd done previously as always an idea, he'd prefer not to be fighting a losing battle through sixty floors.

"Then it's decided then." Cloud said plainly, hoisting himself and his large sword off the wall. "There's only one other way to do this."

Shelke side turned to him. "What's that?"

"Join Soldier."

"No." Was her immediate response.

"Soldier?" Vincent echoed, lost once more.

Sometimes Cloud forgot how long thirty years was. "Soldier is a program made by Shinra, creating a Super human army charged with mako and Jenova cells. The three I know for a fact have Jenova cells inside them are Sephiroth, Genesis, and Angeal. Shinra uses them as a sort of higher version of their regular army."

"And Sephiroth is part of that?"

"The leader, actually." Shelke quipped.

Cloud nodded. "Sephiroth is the General of the army… although, that may not have happened yet."

"You think joining will help you to stop him?"

"I don't want to kill him." At one point, Cloud would have given the world to just be _looked _at by him. "But I don't… I don't know everything that happened. It'll be easier to not only keep tabs on Sephiroth but also Shinra and its dealings if I'm already a part of it."

"They'd just let you join?" Shelke furrowed her brows.

Cloud thought on this for a moment. "I'll figure something out."

Shelke made a noncommittal noise, as she'd heard that response from the blonde many times before. Mostly, he did find a way. But that was over inconsequential things like coming home on time for dinner, or finding a souvenir for Marlene. The blonde was talking about joining _SOLDIER. _He might as well be rolling up his sleeves and already sticking a needle in his arm for Hojo to get data prints out of.

"And what should I do, then?" She put her hands on her hips. "I can't really just march into Shinra with you. Deepground would be on me in seconds—not to mention the science department—and your cover would be blown."

"You'd have to find a way from outside." Cloud murmured. "Your net dives will be useful regardless of where you make them from."

"That's true." Shelke admitted, deep in thought. "I do have a couple of options…"

"And Vincent—

A dark look passed over his features. "Is there anything else you want from me?"

A moment of silence, as Shelke made a face.

"You're going to sleep, _again_?"

"My sins can never be repaid." He answered mysteriously.

The small brunette made a noise of frustration. Cloud was surprised, as it had been the most emotion the girl had ever shown… although she'd been getting better at it recently. Perhaps Vincent brought out the human side of her. "Vincent, you can't just—

"He's helped us enough." Cloud sighed, having dealt with the brooding Turk much longer then Shelke had, and knew enough of his anguished tendencies and mulish behavior to know that once he put his mind on something, he'd never really stop. There wasn't much they could do if he wanted to re-hole himself in his coffin.

Cloud took a pen—hey, he did run a delivery service, he had them in about every pocket—and wrote the numbers to his and Shelke's PHS onto a once a waterlogged and now re-dried Strife Delivery Service business card that had been in his pocket.

"If you ever change your mind," And something told Cloud he would. "Call this number."

"Where can I get a phone?" The brooding man asked violently.

"Buy one." Was Cloud's advice.

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* * *

_There is more to come! Review? _


	3. I'm a delivery boy now

_.._

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Cloud had one more thing to do before he fully left Nibelheim.

That following morning, a truck pulled into the center of the small town, pulling to a stop and unloading a few dozen crates, before chugging along, no doubt making a long winding trek out of the mountains and down to the small reactor towns near Gongaga.

Cloud opened one of them, and saw stacks of fine printed newspapers, all with General Sephiroth's face emotionless on the cover.

This is where it had all started.

Newspapers from Midgar were a rare treat for the inhabitants of the Rector Town, which hardly ever saw much from Midgar, let alone the news. It sometimes took months for government decisions to reach the sleepy ears of the mountain town. Cloud remembered his mother telling him about how they hadn't even _heard _that Shinra was planning on building a Reactor until they one day showed up at the outskirts of town, claiming they'd already got a permit and everything.

But this would be the first in Cloud's short lifetime where the newspaper wouldn't just be something that the adults talked over for weeks.

This would define his life.

Staring at the exact photograph that made him so enamored with the General in the first place made Cloud a bit sick to his stomach, and he was glad that he had left Shelke at the inn. This was one secret that he would keep to his grave. No one, although perhaps Zack, but he didn't really count any longer, had ever known of Cloud's almost crazed obsession with the General. It was why he had joined Soldier in the first place—the intense admiration he'd had for the man, which now felt like ice crawling down his back.

He wasn't sure which emotion was more prevailing, his intense self-loathing for ever believing this propaganda, or even more self hatred for what he was about to do.

Without this paper, the young blonde Strife would never have any ambitions to leave the small mountain town which hated him—would never want to become just like General Sephiroth, to meet General Sephiroth, to have the man acknowledge Cloud.

In a twisted way, maybe the General did in the end.

Cloud was the only person to ever defeat the great man, three times, no less. Cloud Strife, the mountain boy with no friends, failed experiment, failed _friend_ to the man who needed him the most, defeated the great Hero of the Wutai War. The greatest of Hojo's achievements. But then, what was Sephiroth, if not a failed experiment himself?

He knew that destroying this paper wouldn't do much, most likely, as there would be another with the General's face plastered on it, some other version of Shinra propaganda would reach his uneducated ears and spur some sort of far-flung dream that resounded inside him, but at least he'd halt himself before he could even try to fail.

"Scuse me."

A burly, bear-like man came up behind him, looking much like the typical inhabitant of Nibelheim. Big, slow, and dim-witted.

"You related to them Strifes?"

It wouldn't be a far stretch of the man's rock-like intelligence to make the connection, as he was probably the spitting image of his younger self.

"Distantly, yes." He murmured, turning back to face the General's immortalized ink face.

The man looked confused. "Oh well... You here to collect their paper?"

Cloud looked back at him.

He had been contemplating just burning the whole lot of them, but this would make it easier.

"Yes." He grabbed one of them, reading the headline with nostalgia. "So don't bother delivering them to the house."

"Well much thanks then, I don't fancy lugging them boxes all the way up their side of the mountain, y'know?"

Cloud said nothing else, turning back in the direction of the Inn.

Shelke was still asleep in her bed and Cloud took the opportunity to use a low level fire spell to burn the paper, watching with distant fascination as the dim flame curled around Sephiroth's face.

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"Her name's Elfe." On the way back to Midgar, Shelke revealed her plans. "Or, it is now. In Deepground, we'd occasionally have contact with the Turks." Cloud wasn't surprised. Those guys were _everywhere, all the time. _"Her father is a Turk by the name of Verdot—the leader, actually. She'd still be in AVALANCHE right now, and I know where their hideout would be around this time."

"AVALANCHE?" Cloud repeated with a bit of worry. "Are you sure that's safe? I mean, once Shinra gets a hold of them—

"Rufus wouldn't let that happen." At Cloud's dubious face, she added, "He was the one who funded and gave them their intelligence, back when Elfe was still running everything."

"On one of Weiss' dives," Shelke swallowed a lump at saying the fallen Tsviet leader's name. "He'd encountered one of Hojo's files on the Zirconiade, a mysterious materia that was implanted inside of her. It makes her infinitely powerful."

"You'll be safe there, then?"

She nodded. "And I'll have access to a lot of Shinra's files—and you, by extension. If I need to relay a message or get in contact, I'll be able to do so. I'll be able to keep tabs on you from there as well."

Cloud didn't look so sure, but he let her go nonetheless. There was something different about her, that he couldn't place. Something had changed. The two of them made their way though a crowded Wallmarket, dodging pickpockets and anyone who looked too long into their mako-bright eyes, it would take Cloud a while to find work with them, and Cloud wondered what could possible be different about Shelke. Maybe it was her determination—she'd spent most of her life, like him, the pawn in someone else's plan. He hadn't seen it this way before, but it almost was like they got a second chance. Aeris' water had given it to both of them. Perhaps the Cetra girl had planned it this entire time; either way, at this point, Cloud would never know.

Eventually, they ended up above a very familiar stone angel, face blank and emotionless, wings a dull white. It was morbidly ironic that the AVALANCHE headquarters of the time would be 7th Heaven. The bar sure did have a history.

"Take care." The blonde said stiffly.

He had never been very good at goodbyes.

Shelke waved her phone. "If you ever need to get a hold of me…"

It was hard to remember she wasn't a nine year old girl, and Cloud forced himself to stop thinking of her like Denzel or Marlene. He did it constantly whenever he was back at the bar, serving her plate like he would for them, doing laundry, talking to her like she wouldn't understand the more complex versions. She was nineteen, about the same age he was when he defeated Sephiroth and saved the world, and a Deepground Tsviet at that. She hardly needed his protection.

Finding work wasn't as difficult as he had thought.

In the first couple weeks, he had gotten a flat that reminded him disturbingly of the one above the bar, and rented his skills out for hire, taking out slum monsters that Shinra was too lazy and budget-cutting to do so with practiced ease. The only occasional trouble he got was from a Midgar Zolom or a Behemoth that sometimes the inhabitants of the slums would call upon him to destroy.

The only job Cloud had ever steadily held—or held in general—aside from killing monsters, was delivering objects. It was the only thing he knew how to do, and it didn't matter what ever the Planet flung at him, he always ended up delivering packages. Of course, Strife Delivery Service wasn't as much of a hit as it had been during its previous years, not that it ever was, but he received a steady income moving illegal items around the slums. He'd also managed to build a steady arsenal of ethers and other items and equipment, and no one ever dared to cross him with a giant broadsword strapped to his back.

Shelke hadn't contacted him, other then to say that she had found Elfe and was currently in their base. She told him not to contact her physically, and refrain from using her PHS, as AVALANCHE wasn't the most trustworthy of terrorist groups. Vincent, he hadn't heard from at all, which wasn't entirely surprising. There was a good chance that either he was sleeping his sins in his coffin, or had gotten a move on and was perhaps patrolling Wutai for more information on the war.

The guy was a reconnaissance man like that.

Either way, the ex-Turk hadn't contacted him, which was again, unsurprising, as he hardly did it in the past either.

It had been a month since he had taken these impromptu jobs, and he was in the higher part of sector 5, taking out a Crazysaw which had wandered out of sector 8 and made its way to frighten a local restaurant owner into paying Cloud to get rid of it.

The thing wasn't a terribly hard kill, as mostly it relied on status ailments that were rendered useless with Ribbon. It tried a swipe, which Cloud easily parried with First Tsurugi—he hadn't even had to use the blade's splitting purposes yet—and threw the monster into the wall. As it was disoriented, he cast a fully mastered Bolt, which fried it lifelessly onto the ground.

Cloud waited a few moments, before eventually the lifestream simmered and the Crazysaw disappeared.

It was never a good sign when it took a good minute or two for the natural cycle of the planet to work. He wondered if it was because they were so close to Midgar, the deadzone of the planet, or because the planet had somehow been weakened. Had it been this weak in the past timeline?

He couldn't recall.

"Strife, I presume?"

Tseng, like Vincent, didn't seem to have de-aged at all.

Maybe it was a Turk thing?

"That'd be me." Cloud looked around, wondering where the rest of the crew of them were hiding. Most likely in some abandoned buildings, snipers pointed at him and their eyes already looking through the scopes.

Cloud knew that they had been watching him for a few weeks now—probably accessing his skills.

He wondered what had made them finally confront him. Maybe his closeness to the Church where they protected Aeris.

"Would you mind accompanying me for a moment?"

The man who had hired him out, a portly looking old guy, was watching fearfully from his storefront window. Maybe he had sold him out?

"Certainly."

They walked past the Church where Aeris' flower garden grew, and Cloud noticed that not once did Tseng's eyes look at it. Perhaps not to draw attention to it.

They moved farther, into a more deserted part of the city.

"Mr. Strife, have you ever heard of Soldier?"

"Who doesn't, living around here?" He remarked stonily.

"I suppose that's true." Tseng chuckled. "The fan database reaches quite a bit of people."

Cloud said nothing to that.

"What's your opinion on it?"

"Opinion on what?" Cloud asked, looking up then. "On fanbases?"

Tseng blinked. "Shinra."

He had to bite his tongue to say it, but he did. "I have nothing against Shinra." Telling the Turk otherwise would only be detrimental to his plan. "Or Soldier. I'm not a fan of mako, though."

"Had an experience with it?" Tseng made the gesture to his eyes.

Cloud looked away. "Something like that."

"Listen, Mr. Strife. My company and I have a proposition for you. Its unusual, but sometimes, Shinra hires away from their folds of recruits. Not everyone is made for Soldier, but sometimes the ones that are don't come from the Academy. We've been watching you for quite some time now, and think that you may be exactly what Soldier needs."

Cloud's face looked skeptical. "What do you mean to say?"

"I'm asking you, Mr. Strife, if you'd like to join Soldier."

"Too bad." Not yet, but almost there. If Tseng would risk enough to finally confront him after days of careful watching, that must mean the was desperate enough that Cloud could push for more. "I'm a delivery boy."

"I would think, with those eyes, that you've had some experience with the program before."

Cloud shook his head. "Mako poisoning, sever case. I recovered."

"Impressive."

"Is that all?"

"That's all." Tseng affirmed. "I've laid my offer out for you. It's in your hands now."

Cloud sighed, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "I know how Shinra's dogs work. I know how Shinra works. You would hardly let me get away that easily… unless you were never planning to let me get away at all."

Tseng smiled.

Cloud caught sight of a sharply-dressed women in a window above him, and knew he was right. The sniper was pointed directly at him. Most likely they had him from all sides.

"I'll join." He said flatly to Tseng's growing smile. "Under one condition."

"Certainly." Said the Turk judiciously.

"No doctors. No mako check-ups, no underhanded… experiments." He gulped, feeling like he'd swallowed a hefty dose of sawdust. "If I join Soldier, I join Soldier, not the science department."

"Sounds agreeable enough." There was nothing in the Turk's voice that could possibly have said otherwise, but Cloud wasn't about to trust them just like that.

Tseng handed over his card, which ironically was headed; Department of Administrative Research. Cloud wondered if the Turks ever found this particularly amusing, but decided against it. If any of the Turks, aside from Reno, had any sense of humor, they seldom showed it. Cloud had a slight, lilting vision of a young looking woman with curly brown hair and a charming smile, but he didn't know where it had come from.

"We'll be in contact." The Turk said smoothly, and Cloud didn't have to wonder how the man would manage that, even though Cloud gave no sign that he had a PHS or communicative device at all.

And just as he had appeared from thin air, he seemed to disappear from it too, leaving Cloud a few minutes walk from Aeris' church and a forlorn look on his face.

Heh.

Soldier had asked him to join.

The dream had never seemed so worthless.

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When Aeris met Cloud again, she had used her Ring twice. Once, when someone had snuck up behind her, intent on pick pocketing her—or worse. It had activated and the man's knife was parried by an invisible shield inches away from her person, and soon after that, Zack had scared him off pretty easily anyway. The second, a Ceasar from the sewer had jumped her, but had lost interest after the Barrier had sprung and rendered its attacks useless.

She had been meaning to thank him—it was a priceless gift to give her, even Zack had said so—but he had made good on his word to be out of town. Although, she'd been hearing strange rumors of a wanderer who had taken up residence in the slums, protecting the inhabitants like a wraith-like demigod, with a sword as long as a man and as wide as three hands.

"Cloud!"

She called into the street.

The blonde was staring sightlessly into the metal sky, holding a small slip of paper.

When he heard her shout his name, he stuffed it discreetly into one of his many pockets, a thin, wan smile on his lips. Aeris thought he should wear it more often.

"Aeris," He greeted, the name slipping off his tongue as if he'd said it many times. "How are you?"

"Good. Thanks to this," She winked at the twinkling ring, and Cloud's expression turned stormy.

"Are you alright? What happened?"

She blinked at the sudden questions. "Oh, you know, just the regular things that happen around here." At his concerned expression, she giggled, "Goodness! You're turning into Zack!"

"… Zack?" The name came out whispered and mangled. Cloud remembered the bright paper-cut out sky of his eyes, one hand leaning on the rusted truck, the other holding his limp shoulder worriedly, _"Just stick with me, okay Spiky?" _

Aeris grinned beatific. "My boyfriend. He gets a bit overprotective sometimes…"

Cloud shook himself out of his memories, in time to wryly quip, "Well, it seems like he's got good reason to."

Aeris pouted, but ushered him back into the church.

There was the overpowering, ambrosial smell of flowers, and the garden, if possible, seemed to have grown and spun with more life and fervor then it had before.

"I don't know what happened!" Aeris smiled at his shocked expression. "They one day just up and grew like this."

There were more then Cloud remembered.

"You must be a good caretaker." He thought aloud, dazedly, amongst the aromatic scent.

The woman knelt at the end of the wooden planks, cutting one at the bottom of the stem and putting it into a basket. "I'm going to need a cart at this rate," She smiled. "Maybe I could get Zack to build me one?"

"He seems like he would."

And Cloud knew he would too, at some point.

"Oh!" Aeris brought her finger closer to her face, inspecting the minor cut. "Goodness. I've really got to be more careful!" She smudged the blood away with her thumb, returning to cutting the flowers.

Cloud looked apprehensive. "Do you need a bandage or something—

"That's silly," She grinned up at him, hands in the flowers. "It's just a small one, and anyway, it'll probably heal on its own…"

"Look!" She showed her finger, a lithe, small little thing, which had completely stopped bleeding altogether, and didn't seem to have a cut on it at all. "It's already gone."

He looked at it cautiously, as Aeris continued to hum and return to her gardening. That was… unnaturally fast. Cloud didn't remember Aeris healing so quickly in the past. He looked quickly at the flowers.

Maybe they had done it?

She had dumped a judicious amount of healing water onto them—and who knows what else the waters could cure. Aeris would have, probably, seeing as though she had created them in the first place. But this particularly Aeris, wearing an unfamiliar white shirt and long blue striped skirt, hair in a braid and a smile which had never seen death, probably wouldn't have the answers.

Cloud sighed.

"What's wrong, Cloud?"

It felt nice to hear his name on her lips, though. Familiar and soothing.

He shook his head. "It's…nothing, really."

"Doesn't look like nothing." She noted, dryly. "Come on, you can tell me. I won't bite." She patted the space next to her.

He took it, quietly, never really able to say no to the Cetra. "I'm just… feeling a little lost."

"I thought so." Aeris hummed. "You seem to have found your way pretty well so far, though."

"I'm not so sure about that…" He admitted. "I feel like, every choice I make is the wrong one—or it doesn't lead to anything."

Aeris seemed to give this some thought. "Now that can't be very true. What made you decide to come here? To this church?"

"I—" How was he supposed to answer that, when the reason he ended up in this church with Aeris was because he crawled up into it from the ground? Although, before the ground was the pool, and before the pool was the bar. "I needed some space, I guess. Somewhere peaceful."

The church had always been his space. Even when he knew he always had a place at 7th Heaven, he'd prefer to spend his nights under the dwindling stars with the smell of flowers wafting around him.

"Did it lead to anything you wanted?"

Well, he met Aeris. Saw her smile again, in person, not just the half smile that he could feel as he stood behind her in the lifestream. It lead to more choices, a chance to change everything that happened—to stop meteor, to stop Sephiroth before he had the chance to cause it, to stop Reunion—and another opportunity to live his life. Not that he needed any more of those, but perhaps Shelke could use one.

"In a way, I guess it did." The words and revelation behind them seemed to surprise him more then they did Aeris.

"That's good to hear." Her voice was cheerful as she smoothed out her skirt. "There's something about this place. It almost seems—

"Magical." Cloud said whimsically. He'd always thought that, even when waking disoriented, not knowing who he was, false memories and all.

She gave him a brief, amused look. "Well I was going to say calming." She giggled.

Cloud flushed.

But he wouldn't take it back. There had to be something different about this church, from the rest of the world. It felt like an eternity could come and go, and nothing would ever really change about it. He smiled slightly. Good things always happened to him in this church.

By the time he exited, it was almost night time, and Aeris had to leave to return home.

Surprisingly, it was not Tseng who found him this time.

Cloud has spent the last week the way he'd spent the last few months, in a constant state of overbearing worry, unable to think properly for more then a few moments without having to steer his thoughts away. Not that fighting these low level monsters was anything of a challenge to him, and in fact, they seemed to calm him some, so it didn't take much thinking to do the jobs. But every time he tried to close his eyes, he could see brilliant, mako-cyan ones opening under a heavy fog of dark lashes, a wry smile that was so close to him he could almost feel it, and _"It's good to see you, Cloud." _And then he'd wake up with a jolt, realize he hadn't slept at all, and tried to find something else to keep his mind away from the great General. A General who was still _alive _now.

"Congratulations."

There was no affliction to the man's voice at all, and he could have been talking drily of the weather considering his flat, monotonous droll.

Cloud looked up from where was cleaning his blade on the stoop of the flat he was renting, intimidating anyone in a twenty foot radius, aside from this man. He was dressed sharply, in a blue suit that Cloud was keenly aware of. He had a strong, defined jaw, and his skin looked like old leather. His hair, like all other Turks he'd seen with hair, was slicked back and suavely curling around his neck.

"I am Verdot." He held out his hand. "The leader of the Turks."

Cloud had no memory of him, and he apprehensively took the man's hand.

"Mr. Strife," The man looked him over once, as if sizing him up. But Cloud knew it was the Turk gathering information smoothly off of his person. Probably taking into account his large sword, clothing, many pockets, and mako-bright eyes. "Am I correct?"

"That'd be me."

"I've been told you want to join Soldier."

There was something about those words that made Cloud shrug uncomfortably. "I suppose."

A wry smirk made its way onto the man's face. But even then, it looked as emotionless as his blinking eyes. "You don't sound too pleased."

"What else am I going to do?" Cloud retorted. "Deliver packages my whole life?"

Veld frowned. "That'd be an incredible waste of your talent. " He agreed. "I'm sure you'll understand… it's quite strange to find people with your… caliber of skill simply taking odd jobs in the slums. It's almost unethical of ShinRa to simply leave you."

Cloud thought the man was only saying this to gauge Cloud's reaction—it'd be a typical Turk thing to do. And this man, Cloud had to remember, was the leader of the Turks, not just some grunt, or some veteran member like Reno. It must take a lot to be the leader of their organization, and it wouldn't do for Cloud to underestimate anything that the man did. He was surprised that he even came down himself, instead of Tseng, who Cloud supposed was his second in command. Maybe he wanted to handle Cloud himself, size him up in person?

"At any rate, I'd like you to accompany me back to the tower, if that's alright with you."

"That's fine."

Cloud stood then, and Veld gave him a dubious look. "Would you like to collect your belongings? Most likely we won't return."

There was nothing of importance that wasn't already on Cloud's person, so he shrugged indifferently. "I'm ready to go if you are."

The leader gave him another suspect look, before nodding almost imperceptibly. "If you'll follow me please."

They must have created quite a ruckus in the Sector 6 slums, as a handful of conglomerated people hung around the edges of the street, looking on in fascination. They'd probably seen a Turk or two in their life, and Cloud had become something of the official poster child monster-slaying hero of the slums, and something of a local legend. To see the two of them creating such a commotion was rather unusual, and Cloud averted his eyes so he didn't have to see all the stares. Even after Reunion, and the attack on Deepground, Cloud was never used to people staring after him admiringly.

He shouldn't have been so surprised to see a chopper in one of the clearings of what seemed to be a run down park, but he was. It was almost too flashy for the Turks, and Cloud thought that perhaps they were trying to impress him with ShinRa grandeur, as a safety incase Cloud changed his mind. They probably thought him a typical slum rat, living under the plate all his life with dreams of seeing the upper world. In reality, material things like ShinRa's power and money only made him shrivel his nose.

A familiar redhead was leaning against the side of the helicopter, looking almost a bit graceless as he slumped against it, hands in his pockets and a smirk on his lips.

"So you're this Strife everyone's talking about." Reno regarded him coolly.

"Reno." He stuck out his hand.

Cloud was prepared, and did the same. "Nice to meet you."

The redhead pulled his hand back, before giving Cloud's a satisfying smack, and drawing it back with knuckles curled, surprised that Cloud did the same, before they inevitably released they're drawn fingers. Cloud had gotten used to Reno's handshake, a timeless memory of the Turk's days that he continued to use even long after he really stopped being a Turk. Cloud almost immediately felt foolish. How was he supposed to explain why he knew that?

"Eh, so you know my infamous Turk handshake?"

"We used to do something similar back home." He said evasively.

The redhead took it as a sort of answer, and they climbed into the helicopter. Cloud couldn't remember a time he'd ridden in a chopper piloted by Reno, but he could only hope that the Turk wasn't as reckless a pilot as he was a person.

The ride up to the upper plate, and then onwards onto one of the many helicopter pads that speckled the tops of the ShinRa towers was relatively short.

Cloud recalled that when he had been fourteen, there had been some sort of announcement to the Soldier cadets that the ShinRa building was fully operational and that the building process had finally come to an end. They had some sort of gala for it, he recalled. Although he hadn't attended, or been invited. But he did remember finding it odd, as when he had first stood at the foot of the building and looked at its glimmering windows ascending into the Midgar-gray sky, it had looked like a complete building to him.

But at the moment, some of the towers that split off from the base were shadowed by tall cranes, boxes and construction workers flitting around like small ants from the helicopter. He'd never seen the building ever look so incomplete, even though it still had all seventy floors and looked as imposing as usual.

The chopper pulled into an almost ninety degree angle, and Cloud clutched the side of the open door, peering at Verdot who looked unfazed by the twist of the helicopter.

Reno landed it swiftly, and Cloud immediately jumped out.

Glass sliding doors were on the far side of the landing pad, bold letters revealing, "Level 66" written above it. Cloud recalled that they were one floor below the Science department. His eyes narrowed when he thought of the holding cells that had once housed both Red and Aeris.

"Yo, you coming?" Reno looked over his shoulder at him, and Cloud shook himself out of his musings.

"Ah, Mr. Strife."

Lazard tented his hands over his desk, swiveling away from his computer screen to turn to Cloud.

The man eyed him coolly. "You must be very talented for our scouts to take notice of you… " There was a moment where the lighting blinded on his glasses. "Can it be assumed that you've had prior practice?"

"Nothing legitimate." Cloud responded, flatly. "I travel a lot. It's a monster-filled world out there." He pointed out dryly.

If the Director of Soldier appreciated his humor, he didn't show it. "We have you scheduled to take the Soldier Exam today." The man pulled out a thick manila folder from his drawer, and Cloud supposed that most of it was filled on research about him. The man opened it, and flitted through a few pages until he pulled out the one he was attempting to find.

"It's an impromptu makeshift, but we've never had to accommodate someone with you're…" He trailed off, pointedly looking at Cloud's ultraviolet eyes. "Set of standards."

The man shrugged indifferently. Behind him, he heard Reno chuckling.

"So what i_s _my test?" The blonde asked quietly.

From what he distantly remembered from the Soldier exam he had taken at fourteen, it had been a three part test.

The first was, typically, theory and writing. Mostly it was useless background knowledge that in retrospect, never helped Cloud at all, even when part of Avalanche or travelling the world fighting monsters in his delivery system. The second, he recalled vaguely as a field test of sorts. He remembered failing spectacularly at it, as his group wasn't particularly good and he wasn't either. The third was a one on one combat round-robin sort of competition, which Cloud also remembered doing mediocre in.

"We'll have you fight three different Soldiers." Said the Director wisely. "Considering that we have no idea which rank will be best suited for you, we'll have a mix of them all. Afterwards, we'll start you on a field test to judge your abilities in the real world."

"When can I start?"

Lazard blinked at him. "Whenever you're ready."

* * *

_asdfg_


	4. Where had he gotten those, anyway?

_So, for the record, everything I know about Final Fantasy comes directly from other fanfictions and or final fantasy pedia. I've never played the game(s)... so if there's wrong information, that would be why. I hope I fake it pretty well, though. _

* * *

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Cloud didn't need to warm up for very long, only stretch out his limbs and give a few swings of First Tsurugi.

Sebastian, the Third Class he was up against, took his time to flex every muscle imaginable, and then carried on to run through a few katas. If anything, the young Third looked more worried and anxious over this fight then Cloud did. While the short brunette seemed to take his sweet time, Cloud was struck in his musings once more, wondering when the Soldiers had gotten so small. He knew it was because he had grown exponentially then his small, lanky fourteen-year old self, yet staring at the Third in front of him made him wonder if perhaps he had grown, or ShinRa was just fishing out of the kindergarten pool.

"Alright!" The kid jumped up, looking chipper, even if a bit nervous. "I'm ready!"

"Let's have a clean fight now." Came Lazard's dry voice over the comm. "Try not to damage the new facilities fully, and keep casting to a minimum. Match ends when opponent is disarmed."

Neither of them waited for Lazard to say begin.

Cloud easily parried the boy's first strike—First Tsurugi was made from forged Weapons, and was a steel that would be so easily destroyed, like the ShinRa grade sword the Third was using—and pushed the boy back into defense.

Sebastian wasn't particularly fast, seeming to rely more on his solid defense and steady hand, but Cloud, who was known for his sharp strikes and agility, had him working up a sweat pretty quickly. Above them, masked behind the one way mirror that lined the top of the training room, he could almost feel Lazard's gaze on them. The brunette blocked his strike horizontally, and Cloud drew back to aim for a lower blow, took quick for the boy, who caught his sword at an awkward angle.

They carried on for a few more strikes like this, Cloud starting with an easily blocked swing, before quickly returning with another strike that couldn't be as quickly blocked.

Cloud would have preferred to slowly wind the boy into the ends of his stamina, before taking a clear advantage, as to not fully reveal his strength, but he wasn't sure who his other two opponents may be, so he settled on exploiting Sebastian's weakness and sped up his movements until they were almost blurs of metal. Sebastian was pushed completely backwards, having to find his footing from behind while continuously dodging and parrying. Cloud thought that the boy looked familiar, as if Cloud had seen him before. He supposed it must be one of Zack's memories, as he had a strangely morbid one of two swords crossing above freshly upturned snow, the ground bloodied and the tangy smell of decaying monsters in the air.

After a few more minutes on a shaky defense, Sebastian finally pulled backwards, pulling out a Sleep materia and casting a few rounds in succession.

Cloud moved through it fluently, the status Materia sloughing off him like water due to Ribbon, and caught the small Third completely off guard.

The boy didn't have enough time to fully raise his sword in defense, and Cloud maneuvered it out of Sebastian's hands, spinning to his left with a loud clatter.

For a moment, the Third looked at it forlornly, as if he couldn't quite believe he'd lost the battle so quickly.

The boy was shaking his head in disbelief. "I—

"Impressive."

The training room doors split open smoothly between the 'four' and the 'nine' printed upon them, to reveal an impressed Lazard (although the expression was quite muted on his stone-like face) and another Solder that Cloud remembered distantly from Zack's memories. Sebastian straightened at the sight of the director, but Cloud only regarded the man coolly.

"Six minutes and twenty-four seconds," Said the man aloud with a tinge of surprise. "That may perhaps be a new Soldier Exam record."

Cloud shifted uneasily.

He didn't want any records. Not in any place where his name could stand out to Hojo.

Behind the blonde director, a young man whistled low, looking keenly impressed as well. He had his hands laced behind his head, and a cocky grin on his lips. His slicked back hair almost reminded Cloud of Zack, but it was shorter and curly. He had a long sword strapped to his hip and a purple uniform to denote him as Second Class. While there wasn't any height difference between he and he blue-wearing Third beside him, there seemed to illuminate much more confidence.

"This is you're second opponent." Lazard introduced. "Luxiere."

The man stuck his hand out, and Cloud shook it for as little time as possible.

Lazard regarded the beaten Third coolly. "Sebastian, if you would?"

"Oh—uh, right!" He picked up his sword, a traditional standard build, from where it had fallen and hastily jogged to catch up to Lazard, who had already pivoted and retreated back into the hallway. Before the doors could fully slide shut, Sebastian turned around, waving frantically. "Nice battle! Good luck!"

Cloud wondered if all Soldier's had that same honor and good temperament, but then he turned to Luxiere and decided against it.

The man had unsheathed his weapon, and was tapping the blunt side of his blade impatiently on his shoulder, sizing up the blonde with a quiet determination.

The two waited in relative silence, until Lazard's voice came through; "Begin as you please."

Luxiere didn't wait for Lazard to finish, charging quickly, as if expecting Cloud's defense to be slow enough to land a decent blow.

It wasn't, and the flat side of First Tsurugi met the Second's blade with a clang. Cloud wondered why he heard a man's voice in the back of his head, _"Use brings about wear, tear, and rust." _And why it meant so much to him.

Luxiere seemed to notice his wanderings, and growled aloud, attempting to force Cloud backwards.

The blonde held his ground, however, parrying each strike with deadly accuracy and a finesse that the Second lacked, more refined in his form from years of practicing, even though Luxiere was the one who had learned formal katas and went through all the years of Soldier training.

Luxiere struck, but Cloud roll dodged out of the way with a pivoting on his foot, leaving the Second wide open for a clean kick to the chest.

The Second hurdled into the wall, and Cloud pulled First Tsurugi into a defensive angle in front of him one handedly, assessing the damage. Aside from being tossed into the wall, the Second didn't seem to suffer any injuries. That, and what seemed to be the symptoms of a bruised ego. Cloud supposed it was only natural for them to underestimate him, as he was something of a special case.

The blonde dodged a low level Bolt spell, before conjuring up a Barrier to split a wave of Ice that was shot at him almost immediately after.

Luxiere eyed the Barrier, as if surprised with it.

Cloud didn't wait for him to attempt to cast again, moving forward so quickly that the Second drew his sword up in defense at an awkward angle, and Cloud could feel the spasms in the other man's muscles as the fought to keep it up. The blonde drew back, before swinging again in quick succession, much too quickly for such a large blade, and the Second wasn't prepared for it, almost losing the grip on his sword as he leapt backwards.

Luxiere dropped into a low fighting stance, breathing hard. His mako eyes—which looked almost dimmed in comparison to Cloud's—eyed him warily, as if realize he had made a mistake in assessing the blonde warrior so quickly.

"You're good." He remarked, sounding surprised, and a bit invidious.

Cloud only tilted his sword, debating whether he should split it or not. "Thanks." He answered uncomfortably, unsure if he should take the compliment at face value or for what it really meant.

The Second slicked back his hair, smiling wide. Cloud didn't know if it was because he was ready for the challenge, or ready for the win. "But I'm not going to go down so easily!"

He cast a fire and a bolt almost immediately after each other, charging as he did so.

Cloud held his Barrier until the last fingers of electricity passed him, before firing off a fire spell of his own.

Luxiere twisted out of the way just in time, pushing off of the wall and Cloud caught his blade as it aimed for his unguarded right shoulder.

The blonde pushed him off easily, but the Second only flipped in the air, before charging again.

Although Cloud was still in complete control of the situation, and had yet to break a sweat, his thoughts were still on which of the Firsts he'd be facing. They all had blurred images in his memory, the black of their vests and the mako bright of their eyes that had enamored a young fourteen-year old Cloud. Their eyes reminded him of Sephiroth. At the thought of the silver-haired ShinRa General, Cloud immediately paled, quickly ducking under one of Luxiere's swings and jabbing him with the hilt of First Tsurugi.

Would they make him fight the General?

Cloud was breathless at the thought, feeling himself go pale.

Aside from the fact it was _Sephiroth, _and fighting him was one of the greatest obstacles of Cloud's life, if not _the _greatest, he also had to account for the fact they weren't fighting in the ruins of Midgar with much area to wear out, and the fact that Lazard was tediously scrutinizing his every move. The last thing he needed was to fight the man. Would he have to fake a loss, and if so, how? Make he could just forfeit outright, claiming he was too apprehensive with the thought of fighting ShinRa's greatest manmade warrior. Would Lazard even take that as an acceptable answer? Or would he make him fight him anyways, just to access where he stood against the General?

Cloud's mind was racing, and he didn't pay any attention to the Second slamming his sword against his, letting Luxiere take the offense as he held up a steady defense.

And if he decided to fight properly, and give himself an even chance at winning, what would he say if he did? How could he explain where he found the strength to defeat Sephiroth? It had taken years of Hojo's genetic meddling, of changing his very DNA, of becoming _Sephiroth, _to even be able to take a stand at him. And even then, he had been backed by AVALANCHE. And when facing him through Kadaj, wasn't the only reason he won because of all those times he'd face Sephiroth before?

Perhaps it would be best to simply feign an attempt to best him, and fail halfway there.

Luxiere swung, missed, and Cloud took the opportunity to land a good blow to the man's ribs, intent on disarming him, but the Second rolled out of the way in time.

No, he couldn't exercise _too _little strength.

When fighting Sephiroth, it was all or nothing.

Luxiere charged, and they began their dance anew, Cloud controlling the pace with his relentless offense, the beauty of it dulled by Luxiere's inability to keep up and exhaustion.

But Cloud had let the battle rage on long enough, and with a quick maneuver he'd learned from Vincent, he ducked underneath the man's guard and caught his blade from beneath, before pulling it to the side and out of his hands.

Luxiere watched it fly out of his hands with wide-eyed surprise, but altogether looking ragged and relieved that it was over.

The dark-haired Soldier leaned back, almost as if he was appraising him with a new light. Cloud held his steady gaze for a moment, before looking away.

"You fight like a Soldier." He assessed, almost warily, eying the blonde like he'd found Sephiroth somewhere in the man's fighting—which wouldn't be completely barking up the wrong tree.

Cloud only shrugged.

Luxiere bent up to pick his sword, holding it relaxed in his hand, the two of them sizing each other up, or rather, Luxiere doing so and Cloud watching with varying degrees of apprehensiveness, a bit unused to such a scrutinizing glare from an opponent. Sephiroth surely never took much time to stare at him, and if he did, the only thing Cloud felt was that the crazed Soldier was looking for remnants of himself in Cloud.

The doors hissed open, and Cloud lowered First Tsurugi.

His heart pounded as he noticed who was behind Lazard.

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The scant and poor resolution images that Shelke had seen on Elfe surely didn't do the woman very much justice.

She found more of an accurate description of the woman in remembering Veld, the only Turk operative to ever learn of Deepground, and that was one secret he took to his grave. As far as Shelke was aware, the only three non-Deepground ShinRa executives that knew of the secret Soldier organization were Hojo, Scarlet, and Heidegger. Naturally, this didn't include the great President himself. But Veld hadn't… entirely stumbled upon them on accident.

Shelke suspected that he had been sent down to Mako Reactor 0 by the President, but that may not have been entirely true, either.

At any rate, the two shared their refined jaw, although while Elfe's finished in a delicate point, Veld's was smooth and broad. There was something Wutain in the shape of their eyes, even though Veld's records stated that he was from Mideel.

The woman was kind, if not a bit too young to run an eco-terrorist group like AVALANCHE, and Shelke wondered if the reason the group was even still around was due to Rufus and Veld's cautious dealings. The bar hadn't changed much in shape, although quite a lot in interior and mechanics, and Elfe took great care of it. Shelke had caught sight of quite a few blue suits wandering around outside, but they were only quick glimpses out of the corner of her window, and by the time she fully turned they almost always disappeared.

"Rui," Elfe called from downstairs, voice carrying over the cacophony of patrons. Shelke had made sure that Elfe was unaware of her real name—even though it was an off chance, she didn't want anyone to know of her in Midgar, in case it made its way back to ShinRa, and inevitably, Deepground.

Shelke jolted away from the window, where again, she could have sworn she'd seen a Turk in the window of the building over. "Yes?" She called back hesitantly, shutting the laptop.

"There's a package for you." Elfe sounded a bit confused, as Shelke had explained to her that she was a lost orphan and was seeking refuge as she attempted to find her brother. It would seem a bit strange that she would be collecting mail; but there wasn't anything she could do.

She needed this.

The girl made her way down the stairs, the hem of her dress getting caught on one of the upholsters of the railing. She scowled at it, before tugging quickly.

She'd never get used to wearing such a useless garment.

The main room of the bar was filled decently with a variety of people. Many of them looked to be scum, with tattered clothing and dirt smudged faces. Their reeking bodies normally would have deterred her from moving among them, but she'd gotten used to the inhabitants of Edge, which shared quite a lot in common with their Midgar slum counterparts. Elfe had moved back to the front door, where she was looking a bit confused at a postal service employee who was holding quite a few packages.

"You didn't tell me you ordered anything." The brunette accused a bit harshly, but mostly she looked worried.

Shelke assumed it was because of her youthful appearance, and the way she normally acted around the ages of nine or ten in Elfe's presence. It wouldn't do for AVALANCHE to turn on her, as they were already a close knit group of skeptics to begin with.

"I didn't know I had to tell you." She said, sounding a bit sheepish.

Elfe's eyes softened. "I'm just worried for you." She explained, gathering the packages from the man at the door. "The slums are a dangerous place for a young girl."

She shooed the man away, closing the door a bit irritably. It never ceased to amaze Shelke that she could be so… non charismatic and yet still lead a group like AVALANCHE.

Shelke only grabbed her packages, nodding slowly.

Elfe didn't say anything else to her, looking a bit awkward at her attempt at parenting. Luckily, Shears approached from behind the counter, pulling Elfe into a more secluded part of the bar. Shelke supposed it was AVALANCHE business, and pretended not to notice. Unless Cloud changed something drastic, AVALANCHE's fate was probably still immortalized with the broken Zirconiade inside of Elfe. From what she'd found on her SND dive after Veld had defected all those years ago in the future-past, back in Deepground, Shears had also joined the Turks at some point, leaving AVALANCHE as well.

But AVALANCHE's dealings were hardly any of her business.

She carefully made her way up the stairs, as to not lose her footing while carrying boxes which weighed more then she did, and steered clear from the railing.

Once in the safety of her room, she tore them open.

The room was small, equipped with a small bed that fit her equally small size perfectly, a window that usually was covered by a curtain, and a small desk with a chair and drawers. She ripped one of them open, revealing most of her possessions. She'd hidden all her important items inside a locked diary, where she had cut out the insides of the paper in a square shaped form to hide items she didn't want Elfe or any of the AVALANCEH members to find, in case they were the kind to snoop through a little girl's bedroom.

Inside of the fake diary were a handful of her mastered materia, glittering pricelessly among her star pendant and magic circlet, and a dulled key.

The Tsviet plucked the key out from between Gravity and Odin, and closed the diary once more, binding it in a ribbon one of the AVALANCHE members had given her. They'd taken a bit of a shine to her, although perhaps that was more due to the fact they saw her as a lonely orphaned girl, fate ruined by ShinRa's machinations (which wasn't exactly untrue) and the representation of everything they wanted to stop about ShinRa. And while Elfe had given her the spare room above the bar, the rest of the group always gave her other things, mostly useless items that a child would want, but items nonetheless. While Shelke had yet to receive anything more useful then a bar of candy, she really didn't mind much.

The key was to the locked drawer at the bottom left drawer, which had a lock sealing it closed.

Shelke twisted it, to reveal her pair of Nunchuks.

They were actually good quality, she appraised. She'd found them after many hours perusing through the darkened shops of Wallmarket, eventually coming across what seemed to be a small arsenal of smuggled Wutain weapons. They were classy, and made from a good material. Shelke would mourn their loss, but alas, she would have more uses with a much different kind of Nunchuk… and she'd have to alter their interior and design in general to maneuver them the way she wanted.

After placing them on the quilt next to her packages, the girl ripped open the first one, revealing a low-grade issue virtual helmet. Normally, a slow machine such as this would never be able to perform a synaptic net dive, but luckily, Shelke was well versed in the machines, and knew exactly where to get the parts to upgrade it's speed.

Shelke surveyed the many components she'd collected.

Being able to perform a true Synaptic Net Dive was her first and foremost priority. It was one thing to hack into the ShinRa system, it was another to scale into their cyber dimensions and steal their secrets.

As of now, she'd mostly been perusing their less-secretive documents, mainly on their Soldier recruits, in hopes of finding anything on Cloud.

She hadn't, yet, but she assumed that was because Cloud had yet to make contact.

Shelke sighed.

She clamored onto the bed, being cautious to avoid the many wires she'd emptied out of her packages. Most of them would hook the visual response system into the laptop to help ease the mental transition of a long SND, while some were going to upgrade her computer system. She supposed that the Bar most likely didn't have the best signal, and she'd probably have to climb through a few gutters and find a line that went directly into ShinRa's service.

It seemed like quite a bit of work—and it was—but Shelke was well aware of its benefits.

Cloud was right. Being in the past was wiping an entirely clean slate. While she herself may be out of reach, there were so many other people she could save. Shalua, Sephiroth, Zack, the Ancient, hell, maybe even Weiss if she managed to find a way to contact him. He'd still be attempting to overthrow the Restrictor's at this point. She was worried, but mostly it was all anxiety.

By the time the young girl had made any sort of progress, what little left of the day had already quickly faded away into a steeping darkness, the only light was from the dwindling street lamps outside her window and the almost burned-out lamp next to her bed.

Shelke continued, however, sitting cross-legged on the bed, a variety of tools stuck behind her ears, fiddling with the peripheral processors on one of the visor's sensors.

"Rui?"

Elfe called from the bar, and Shelke nearly jolted out of her deep concentration.

"What is it?"

"Are you coming down for dinner?"

Shelke placed the tools down, surmising her work. She'd gotten most of the left side done, with the whole right to go. But mostly, she was pleased.

It was progress, after all.

She shook her head, climbing out of the bed, much to the protest of her limbs which had cramped over the hours. "Coming!"

She could only hope Cloud was fairing the same.

.

.

.

Cloud dodged a blast of fire as it sped his way, searing the paneled flooring into a charred, grayish color.

On the communication system Lazard was warning against the use of dangerous high-powered materia, but obviously it went ignored.

The blonde cast a Bolt, before quickly taking the offense.

Genesis parried, and Cloud admired his quick agility and reflexes. Only Sephiroth had ever been able to keep up with him for this long.

The redheaded Soldier First flew into action once more, with a gracefulness that Cloud never could quite possess, and the blonde caught his strikes in rapid succession, feeling it very little compared to the precise, powerful slashes of the Masamune. Mostly, Cloud was just intensely relieved he wasn't fighting Sephiroth. Sure, Genesis may be a Soldier First, reputedly one of the best at that—but Sephiroth… he was on an entirely different level. From Genesis' angered, almost jealous eyes, Cloud could tell the man knew it as well.

Genesis was getting agitated.

He surveyed the blonde coolly, swinging his rapier in the air with a wide swish to flex his arm, which had cramped quickly due to the strain of fighting at such a caliber for so long.

This man—this enigma—he was much stronger then Genesis expected.

He wanted to blame his inability to find an opening on his surprise and underestimation of the man, but he knew it wasn't the case. The blonde fought as if every blow he made was the last, as if that was how he was brought up to fight. Genesis had never really seen anything quite like it, aside from with Sephiroth, it was almost as if the blonde had been training for years and years.

But how was that possible?

He wasn't ShinRa.

And it was hardly like ShinRa had many other military competitors. Wutai? No… the blonde was too…well, blonde, for one. There was nothing Wutain in his defined, mako-bright eyes.

Genesis narrowed his eyes.

Where had he gotten those, anyway?

He charged the blonde again, expecting that, after a few exchanged blows, he'd be able to find some sort of opening. But if there was one, the blonde's solid defense didn't show it. It would be one thing if the man was just good at defending—it was another thing entirely when he was just as good, if not better, at attacking.

There was something wild and untamed about the way he went about it; like he was restless at the very thought of ever drawing his sword.

Genesis struck again, his rapier singing as it slammed into the broad side of the blonde's enormous blade. The First Class had never seen such a ridiculously large sword, aside from the one Angeal lugged around. _"Rust, Genesis. Such a waste." _The man would say, but obviously, Strife didn't agree.

The hilt of the blade split to reveal a small arsenal of magic materia, and as Genesis saw it, he immediately leapt back with a growing sense of trepidation.

That was _a lot _of materia.

It looked mastered, too.

The blonde charged him, and Genesis blocked, agitation beginning to form at the base of his neck.

He already knew the blonde was a quick caster—every time he attempted a Fire spell it seemed a Barrier formed magically—and he didn't want to see what kind of damage that kind of power could do to himself and the training room.

And Genesis wasn't sure if he'd want to go against a walking disaster of materia, anyway.

Hah. And Lazard was concerned with _him _overdoing it.

He could have groaned had he not been charged once more, and concentrating to much on his footwork to have a proper response. That meant he couldn't use materia, and this blonde, who, hell, could give _Sephiroth _a run for his money, was just as good at sword fighting as he was. The blonde swung downwards, he brought his blade up, and could _feel _his feet slide backwards with the pressure of the blonde's strength.

The battle, surely, would have gone on longer, had Lazard allowed it to.

But Cloud had been making progress on the First—it took a lot, not to use offensive materia nor use his blades more special properties—but he felt that the two of them were fighting at least a more respectable even level without them. And at any rate, if Genesis was really already starting his degration, it wouldn't do for Cloud to worsen it when he still didn't know how to stop it. He didn't know how Genesis' degration came about in the first place, but most likely it had something to do with an injury.

When Lazard called time, Genesis looked like he was about to fight the man himself.

The auburn haired First lowered his guard, looking angrier then Lazard had seen him since he started here. All the Firsts had a way of looking expressionless no matter what the situation, and the Director had hardly seen any of them enraged, other then a sharp spark in the brows that quickly was masked with indifference. But, he supposed, if there was one who'd definitely lose their cool, it would be Genesis. The man, at the moment, looked as if Lazard had just burned all his Loveless copies.

Or maybe, he just ruined the man's fun and kept his curiosity unsatiated.

But really, anyone, even the First Class Soldier himself, could have been able to tell that he was fighting a losing battle. Cloud's stamina was something remarkable; to be able to face down a Soldier First—Commander Rhapsados, at that—for over two hours and still continue to stand, only slightly winded. In turn, the Commander himself looked as if he'd been fighting for hours, panting slightly. The blonde had kept up a superb defense, not only that, but he'd been able to continuously push Genesis past his limits, resulting in the redhead having to leap out of the fray and assess his next move, something he hardly ever did.

Which was why Lazard had come to the decision he had.

"While it's completely unorthodox," Said the man, taking off his glasses and wiping them on a cloth tucked into his breast pocket. "And I'm sure its never been done in ShinRa history…"

Genesis shifted his weight, Cloud looked apprehensive, and Lazard was smiling.

"I officially announce your title as a First Class ShinRa Soldier."

The redheaded Commander, and Sebastian and Luxiere (who had followed the Director into the training room) all didn't look too surprised at this.

But apparently, Cloud did.

"What?" Luxiere tilted his head. "You thought that after fighting a First that long, you _wouldn't _be immediately inducted as a First?"

"I can't even last for five minutes…" Sebastian said mournfully.

Lazard nodded. "It'd be incredible waste of resources to have you doing missions that were significantly below your caliber. I—and I'm sure the company will agree—believe that your talents will be better suited on missions that play on your strengths." The man surveyed him coolly. "And after such a display, I'm sure you'll have no trouble keeping up with them. Of course, you'll still have your field test to complete, but I'm sure after this you'll have no trouble with that."

Cloud rubbed the back of his head.

_"What rank were you?"_

_"Rank?"_

_"You know, in Soldier."_

_"Oh, I was…"_

"First." Cloud said softly, breaking the silence as everyone turned to look at him, startled. "First Class."

Lazard looked bemused, unaware how deeply Cloud was sifting through his memories. "First Class Soldier—yes, that's right. Are you surprised?"

Aeris was looking off into the distance, a sad, melancholic look to her beautiful face. _"Just the same as him…"_

Cloud broke out of his memories at the sound of Lazard's voice. "Huh?"

"He looks so shellshocked." Genesis remarked with a smirk. "Perhaps he's star struck?"

Lazard made no comment to that, continuing onwards. "Why don't we start your field test?"

Luxiere, Sebastian, and Genesis were all ushered out of the room by the Director. Although, the First Class Soldier did give him a look before he exited. As if he had… marked Cloud, or something. Perhaps that was a good thing, but mostly, Cloud thought that wasn't going to lead to anything good. He didn't want any attention drawn to himself—he wanted to watch Sephiroth from a distance, and when the time came, stop him from finding Jenova.

The field test was exactly what Cloud thought it was. The hardest part was simply following the orders that Lazard directed him. He'd much rather just beat down all the monsters—which was the easy part—and disarm the ShinRa army soldiers who were 'Wutain spies' and call it a day, but Lazard had him going through mazes and ducking under bridges and a whole gala of useless orders that Cloud didn't need. The blonde fake-Soldier supposed that the real reason he was even getting a field test was simply to see if he _could _follow orders.

After all, ShinRa had no use for an untamable lapdog.

"Good job." The Director remarked, as Cloud pulled off his VRS helmet.

"What's my score?" He remembered getting scored in the actual Soldier test.

Lazard looked amused. "I suppose it hardly matters. At any rate, let's head back to my office. While you're physical induction is over, we have quite a lot more ground to cover."

The door opened, and he saw the three Soldiers he had fought waiting outside of the door.

The three made their way out of the Level 49 Training Room, and into the vast hallway.

Cloud was surprised to see a small herd of Soldiers all clamoring around them in something that could be described as awe. Cloud, used to the attention after Reunion and meteor, but surprised with it here, only looked down, blushing. Beside him, Genesis looked incredibly amused by it all, if not a bit irritated by the many people swarming them. Luxiere and Sebastian disappeared into the crowd, which was mostly Thirds, but with a few Seconds. Cloud felt his heart wrench. Was Zack somewhere in there? He looked for the dark spikes, but saw none.

They were halfway into the briefing room when Cloud paled.

He'd told Tseng that he wouldn't join ShinRa if there was even a brief mentioning of a checkup in his contract.

He hoped the Turk had passed the word onto Lazard.

The Director sat into his chair, booting up his computer, fingers flying delicately over the keys.

"Since your induction to First has been so… unorthodox, I'll have to send this up to the President to look over, but, considering the circumstances," At this, he gave Cloud a once over, pressing a button that sent the machine at the far side of the room into a whirl of activity. "I'm sure he won't disapprove."

The blonde nodded, sitting stiffly in one of the chairs. "And my contract?"

Lazard got up, walking over to the printer, which had been the cause of much of the noise in the room. Cloud noticed that the desks, which he supposed housed a variety of secretaries, were mysteriously absent of their hosts. He and Lazard were the only ones in the room, aside from the Turks that were no doubt stationed at the security cameras, wired into their conversation. Cloud wouldn't put it past them.

He handed the rather thick stack to Cloud.

The blonde took his time perusing it.

There wasn't any mention of mako injection schedules, or actually, any reference to mako at all. Cloud could hazily remember the forms he had to sign when participating in the Soldier test, and they were riddled with obscure references to the mako procedures, and the integration of Jenova cells into a host. Of course, back then, it all looked like science mumbo jumbo and they were just allusions towards how Soldier changes DNA makeup, and mostly, at the time, Cloud thought it all sounded dangerous and cool.

Anything to be like Sephiroth, right?

He shook his head.

He read them over again just to make sure there wasn't anything he didn't like. Lazard must have made this up on the fly, as it scarcely resembled the forms he signed all those years ago.

"You'll have the ability to pick and choose which missions you go on, as all Firsts do," Explained Lazard coolly. "You also don't have a set uniform—or rather, you do, but it's optional."

Cloud signed his name at the dotted line, a completely illegible scribble from years of running a delivery service.

He handed he papers back to Lazard.

"Anything else I should know?" He was getting tired of this whole ShinRa induction. It'd taken the better part of the day, and while he wasn't worn out from the fighting, he was worn out from all the anxious build up that had been going on since he'd been picked up this morning.

The blonde Director pushed up has glasses. "That should be all for today. Tomorrow, we'll finalize your residency in the building, and start you off on the Mission roster."

Cloud stood.

"Ah, yes, on the subject of your housing…" Lazard rebooted his computer, going through what seemed to be a layout of the building and a mass spreadsheet of all Soldiers. "As a resident Soldier and an employee of Shinra, you'll have housing within the building."

The ex-Soldier's face turned a little green at the thought of the company barracks. He'd spent a long few months in that smelly tower, and he'd prefer never to see it again. The cadets and the ShinRa army were housed in the left tower, although, he never knew specifically where Soldiers went. He knew the right tower housed most of the Second and Thirds, as well as a variety of other personnel. But he'd never been able to figure out the mystery of where the Firsts went…

"Currently, we have an open residential zone on Floor Sixty," Ah, so that was what that floor was for… "As the rest of them are currently in the process of being built."

Lazard handed him a keycard, which had the words, _"Floor 60, Apartment 3B" _in print down the side. The barcode was opposite of it.

"That will allow you access to the upper floors," Cloud recalled having to convince the Mayor to give them his back when AVALANCHE infiltrated the ShinRa headquarters.

It felt odd to have one of his own; just another novelty of officially being a Soldier First, he supposed.

"Thanks." The blonde didn't know what else he should say, and Lazard looked like he was mostly done with him, anyway.

"This is my PHS number, if you have any questions, just call." The man handed him his business card. "I'll send you emails periodically, and you'll receive Missions as well as ShinRa news from there."

Cloud took it wordlessly, before looking up. "Would that be all?"

Lazard gave him a grim smile. "That would be all, Mr. Strife."

He exited, expecting to have to use his limited memory on the layout of the ShinRa headquarters to fiddle his way through the many winding, almost maze like hallways. Instead, as soon as the "five" and the "one" on the doors split open, he was met face to face with a familiar looking visage that he had only seen recently in his dreams and fucked up hallucinations of the lifestream.

Zack looked like he stepped out of his memories. His bright blue eyes were wide in surprise, as he nearly ran straight into a just as equally surprised Cloud (a Cloud who was actually a bit taller then him, too). But, the more Cloud looked at him, the more he realized that this wasn't really _his _Zack. This one, while still chipper and full of energy, but lacked the quiet intenseness that the Zack who had fought tooth and nail through ShinRa for Cloud had. He lacked his Buster Sword, as well as that strange, x-shaped scar on his cheek.

"Sorry!" Said the Second sheepishly, before blinking and almost jumping back in shock. "H—Hey! You're that new guy everyone's talking about."

"News spreads fast here." Cloud smiled wryly.

"It sure does! You should see my buddy Kunsel, he seems to know _everything_, and hey, is it true that they really made you straight to a First?" Zack's eyes were wide and curious, and Cloud almost took a step back.

The black-haired Soldier swiped the keycard straight from Cloud's limp fingers.

"Ah! It _is _true! That's the First's floor!"

Zack rubbed his chin. "Hmmm, _3B_, _3B…_ Who lives there? I wonder… Well, Angeal's 5A—

Cloud felt his throat work up in fear. "Wait. What do you mean, 'who lives there'?"

Zack turned to him, breaking out of his musings. "Oh well, don't'cha know? Even Firsts don't have their own apartments! They live in these duplex thingies. You should see Angeal's—do you know who that is yet? He's one of the Firsts that mentors me—those things are huge!"

Cloud felt his terror rise. "Duplex?"

"Well, yeah. You know what those are, right?" Zack gave him a surprised look. "ShinRa's not made of money, you know. Although, I guess they're rolling in it if they can afford to build such a huge headquarters. Well anyway, these guys are super stingy, and its easier to just have everyone room together."

Cloud opened his mouth, but no words could come out.

3_B. _That meant _3A _was already taken.

Damn.

* * *

_oh, and by the way, there are no OCs in this story, nor will I be putting any in here. All Soldiers I mention by name are part of the series._


	5. Some things he did were unforgivable

_I think I just love torturing Cloud. There really isn't any other reason why I do the things I do. To be fair, he makes it relatively easy. I don't think the Sephiroth/Cloud friendship has ever been explored to its full potential (though there are quite a few ongoing stories that are doing a good job of doing so). _

* * *

.

.

.

"You should be thankful!" Zack protested hotly. "Firsts have it so easy! I've got to room with three other smelly guys, and we even have smaller apartments then you guys do! _And _you have your own bathrooms! Do you have any idea how quickly hot water runs out around here?"

But Cloud was hardly listening to anything Zack was saying, he was too busy worrying about who his roommate was.

He probably shouldn't, as most likely, it was one of the other handful of Firsts had the didn't know.

He sighed and forced himself to calm down.

Zack.

_Zack _was here with him.

That brought a smile to his face.

"Actually, I don't." Cloud found himself saying, Zack's contagious smile working its way onto his face. "I'm new here, remember? I don't even know how to get to the sixtieth floor."

"Lazard didn't show you?" Zack guffawed. "Man, that guy sure is inconsiderate. That's okay though, I can show you the way." Zack grinned. "I'm a Soldier extraordinaire, don't you know?"

Cloud only shook his head, following the Second's lead.

"Well we're on the fifty-first floor right now, and if we take this elevator right here, it'll lead us to the fifty-ninth. And don't ask me about the other floors; no one really knows how to get to them. Apparently, you need a special keycard and you have to take a special elevator—people say its connected to the science labs. You know how they kind of jut out the side and stuff? My buddy Kunsel said that there's like, a secret glass elevator on the outside of floor sixty-seven that takes you to them. Isn't that cool?"

"Your buddy Kunsel is well informed." Cloud answered wryly, not making any remark about what was actually a true statement. Best not to let Zack know that, though.

"Oh hell yeah. That guy knows _everything. _A bit creepy, actually." Zack meandered over to a hallway with two elevators.

"Oh, you'll need to swipe your card here." Zack waved to the key card access bar. "All floors above fifty-nine require special access." Zack pouted. "I don't have one yet, but trust me, when I'm a First, we'll be roomies and everything!"

Cloud smiled bemusedly at Zack's antics.

The elevator doors slid open, and the two entered. Zack was right, the floors above fifty-nine were all lit up in green, while the rest were in a dull yellow. He assumed it was because he had swiped his card that they were available.

"Is becoming First your dream?"

To be honest, Cloud didn't think he'd ever asked Zack this question.

Surprisingly, the Second shook his head. "Nah, my dream is to become a hero!"

Cloud wanted nothing more then to tell the boy that one day, he would be. Maybe not in any way he wanted to, but Zack had become a hero. He'd saved Cloud and himself from a life of misery as science projects, dragged Cloud's lifeless ass halfway across the world along with himself, trying to keep his promise to Aeris, trying to live on for his deceased mentor. In the end, Zack had asked Cloud to promise him to live on for the both of them—and even then, with such a simple promise, Cloud was pretty sure he had failed the man.

He wouldn't do it this time.

"That's…" Cloud closed his eyes. "A nice dream."

He could hear Zack laughing from beside him, but all he saw was the man smiling at him, leaning against a door framed in light, Aeris' startling bottle green eyes leaving him to turn to the dark haired Soldier, fading into the blinding sun.

The elevator hissed as it landed on the correct floor, doors opening soundlessly.

Cloud remembered the floor as a fully built, sleek looking opening hallway full of Soldier guards.

While there were still a variety of guards, this time, they weren't immediately trying to skewer Cloud with their swords. Instead, they saluted and held their positions. Cloud remembered the floor being sleek as it was now, but also completely furbished. Now, it was mostly open space, and looked as if some of the rooms weren't finished with construction. The two passed through the open space that would one day house a line of golden statues, but now was simply a vast, empty room.

Zack pulled him down one of the hallways, until eventually they came to a door with a plate next to the door, which read, _Apt. 3._

Cloud's face lost its pallor, and it felt as if his stomach had dropped all sixty floors down, and was now somewhere in a pile of mush on the floor of the ShinRa main shop.

Beneath the sign were two open slots, obviously used to put name plaques in.

One was already in use.

In bold letters, it read; _Sephiroth_.

"Sephiroth? _Sephiroth!_" Zack sounded as hysterical as Cloud felt, but mostly, the brunette's was due to an excitement he couldn't contain. "That's crazy! I'm so jealous Cloud! You're_rooming _with Sephiroth!"

Luck was the farthest thing from his mind, and Cloud wanted to say he'd trade with Zack if he'd like, but he was too numb to do much else then gape.

"What are you waiting for!" Zack grabbed the keycard out of his limp hand, swiping it on the door almost immediately.

The lock clicked, and, if possible, Cloud's stomach bypassed further until it was with Deepground in the basement. He couldn't even feel himself breathing—if he was breathing at all. It was almost as if someone had numbed him completely until the only thing he could hear was the dull beat of his own heart and all he could see was the door in front of him. Even Zack's loud voice, reaching new notes of hysteria as he opened the door, was nothing but dim noise.

He _had _wanted to keep an eye on the General, right?

This would be nothing short of the perfect opportunity to do so.

Aside from the fact the man had murdered his mother, burned down his village, and attempted to kill _him _countless times. Even though he had never been particularly close to his mother, nor his village, and had very little care for himself, some things he did were _unforgivable. _Murdering Aeris was one of them.

Sephiroth wasn't in the rightest state of mind, he tried to reason. And somewhere, sure, he knew in the back of his head that this Sephiroth, the one from the deepest recesses of his memories, had yet to commit any of these crimes against the blonde, and truly it was just as unfair of him to accuse him of something he hadn't done yet—but it wasn't as simple as logic. There was no logic or sound reasoning in the world that could bring Aeris back, _his _Aeris back, nor was there any that could take away those years he'd spent attempting to pick back the pieces of himself.

The blonde regained himself, and stepped inside.

And immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

"He's not here." He said aloud, to the empty apartment.

Zack laughed. "Yeah, wouldn't that be awkward?" But Cloud could hardly hear him over the sound of his own rushing heart.

As the Second bounced around the apartment, Cloud understood why Angeal had once called him a 'puppy'. He looked much too happy snooping around Cloud's new house, fidgeting and upturning almost everything in the room. If Sephiroth had any intentions of ever decorating this place, they didn't show whatsoever. It looked as if the General scarcely even used the area, as it was mostly furbished with ShinRa grade items and altogether looked Spartan. Cloud supposed he'd prefer it that way, too, if he were the General. The front door entered into what could possibly be a large sitting room, which only had a couch and a television at the moment. Both of them looked ShinRa issue.

Zack was perusing through the fridge, which Cloud found just as barren as the rest of the house.

From the sitting room, came an equally open kitchen, equipped with a small island, a modest sized fridge, and the typical kitchen appliances.

He almost felt… awkward. Intrusive, even.

Sephiroth _lived _here.

Cloud tried to picture it… but failed.

He'd fought the man to his death so many times, and yet, he'd never seriously _known _Sephiroth. Certainly didn't know where he lived, anyway. It was incredibly ironic that Cloud knew the fastest way to kill him, but he scarcely knew the first thing about him.

"Wow, what does this guy live off of?" Zack pulled out one of the shelves of the fridge, which was just as barren as the last two. "_Air? _And… juice?" Zack made a face, as it stunk sort of like rotting tomatoes and gross vegetables.

"Paopu juice." Cloud answered, reeling a bit at how much perfect sense it made. Paopu helped with mako integration, and from the looks of it, was half full. Sometimes, even, Sephiroth made _sense. _Drank Paopu for mako poisoning, probably stood there and drank it straight from the bottle. He tried not to dwell on it, and for that matter, Sephiroth's more human qualities (though it was getting a bit hard to now).

Zack was now rummaging through the cupboards, which didn't have much in it besides little towns of dust bunnies, paper plates and the occasional glass or two. Eventually, the Second got bored of finding the same boring stuff around the house, and stopped his snooping to lean against the counter with a sigh.

"All of this stuff seems to be just the normal ShinRa issue stuff that everyone gets." Zack blew a raspberry.

Cloud looked bemused. "That's what you get for snooping."

"Wouldn't you?" The dark-haired Soldier countered with a quirky grin. "I mean, it's _Sephiroth_!"

"You've said that already." Cloud felt a bit sick. As if he didn't already know. Being in the past made him think of the self he almost wished he'd half-forgotten. The self that would've been Zack—but a thousand times worse.

"You just don't get it!" Zack harrumphed. "The guy is like… a legend! I've been in Soldier for almost two years now and I haven't even seen a single wink of the guy since the inauguration! That was a super long time ago! It's like he disappears or something. I mean…. We even work for the same company. Isn't that crazy?"

There was very little that Cloud remembered of Sephiroth from before Nibelheim, other then the fact that he was never there.

The cadets chattered about him constantly, and Cloud could only remember one time he'd ever seen Sephiroth, and even then, it was past a sea of people who were all staring at him awestruck. Cloud never really knew the man, considering that all the encounters he'd ever had with the great General involved one of them getting stabbed through the chest, or something equally as painful. There wasn't really much talking that went on whenever Cloud met the man, unless it was painful goading. Not that Cloud would have wanted to talk to him after all that had happened, anyway. No, Sephiroth had always been too insane, and when he wasn't, before he had discovered who he was, or, _what _he was, Cloud had only ever conversed with him once.

_"What's it like to be back in your hometown?"_

And even then, it was hardly a conversation.

"I guess I don't." Cloud admitted, looking away. "Get it, I mean."

His eyes found a door that was on the right side of the sitting room. There was an identical one on the left side.

He moved from the kitchen then, swinging it open.

Inside was a short hallway, with a closet on one of the walls. The blonde opened it to reveal it empty aside from spare sheets. He placed First Tsurugi in it gently, before surveying the rest of his new room. There was one bed, fairly large, and one night stand. The alarm clock also looked ShinRa issue, as did all the bland furnishings. Zack was right about the bathroom; he had his own. It wasn't particularly big, but it was nice to know he didn't have to share with the man who'd tried to destroy the world.

How awkward would that be?

"So this is you're room, huh? It kind of looks like Angeal's—hey whoa!" The Second had obviously followed him in, turning to the left side of his bedroom wall, to where windows lined the entire side.

One of them slid open.

"You have a _balcony_!"

Zack leapt out into it, leaning over the railing and making crazy yelping noises, as if he couldn't quite believe Cloud's fortune (or misfortune, depending on how one looked at it). Cloud followed him out, to reveal a stunning viewof the many components of the ShinRa Headquarters, as well as a startling expanse of the Upper Plate, Midgar Mako Reactor 1 looming in the distance. Even the sky, which was usually a tumult of smoggy haze, could be seen distantly above the clouts of pollution.

As Zack continued to admire the admittedly spectacular view, Cloud turned his head to the far side of the balcony. There were two chairs on either side, and while Cloud's had a fine coating of dust from the time it'd spent without use, the one on the other side didn't have any, and was littered with a variety of items Cloud realized were used for sword cleaning.

There was something absurd about that.

Sephiroth cleaned Masamune on that chair, staring out into the distant outline of clouds and the brightness of the sun as it faded past the far sea.

Cloud looked away.

Zack leapt off of the railing, turning to Cloud with a sheepish expression. "Sorry. Just… got a little carried away."

Cloud only smiled in return.

He gave another look to the chair.

"Do you know where Sephiroth is?" He asked the Second, wondering if there was any chance that Zack even knew.

"No clue." The dark-haired Gongagian shrugged. So much for that theory. "I hear he takes a lot of missions though. He's probably on one of those?" The man pondered this for a moment. "Or he could be in his office. I know he has one… But I guess I don't know. Sorry."

Neither of those were sufficient answers.

"That's fine." Cloud shook his head. "Thanks, Zack. Seriously, for everything." He said, sincerely, wondering if he was being grateful for a helpful Second helping out a new fellow Soldier, or for a once in a lifetime friend who sacrificed his life for him.

"It's no problem!" The Second grinned at him. "You'll let me come around and bug you, yeah? Pretend like we're hanging out but really just sit on your coach and wait for the General to come by?"

"If you like." Cloud's mouth turned in amusement.

After Zack left, Cloud immediately whipped out his PHS.

He put Lazard's number into his files, spending a brief moment flitting through his contacts, reading the names of people who he'd come to know. It hurt a bit, to see them, and he realized that he'd spent the past three months here in such a flurry of activity that he hadn't had the time to properly mourn the people he'd lost coming here. Aeris was here, of course, but she might as well have been a stranger. Zack too, he was kind, sure, but he wasn't the Zack who had become best friends with him, who had saved him. Most of them were alive now, of course, which was a plus. But didn't remember him.

He called Shelke.

His phone rang a few times, before it connected.

_"Cloud." _She greeted.

Her voice sounded different.

"Shelke." He smiled a bit into the phone. It was nice to hear a voice which actually remembered him. "How are you?"

She seemed a bit surprised he asked. _"Fine… I find that I have… adapted to life with AVALANCHE quite easily. Elfe tries to take good care of me. _" And then, _"Was there something you wanted?_"

"Could you hack into the ShinRa database and tell me where Sephiroth is right now?"

He didn't _really_ need to know, nor was it much of a necessity. Mostly, he just wanted to know where the man was, as him just being alive and in Cloud's vicinity made his skin itch. It was strange—they could possibly be less then twenty feet apart, and Cloud would have to grapple with the urge to kill him while the man's guard was down. You take every opportunity you can; every moment of weakness. Cloud had based the entirety of his fighting style off of it—to counterbalancing Sephiroth's. Wasting a clear opening with Sephiroth meant death.

_But we're not fighting now, are we?_ Came the snide remark of his mind. _He doesn't even know your name._

Although he doubted the maniacal Sephiroth he remembered so clearly would have bothered learning his name if it hadn't been to his own taunting advantage.

There was a pause, and Cloud could here her fingers making quick work of the keys to her computer, until finally, she answered, _"His login time would suggest that he has been out of the building for almost thirty-six hours now." _There was a pause, as if Shelke was opening more files, "_The mission log indicates that he is currently stationed in Junon for a mission."_

Junon, huh?

He wondered what was going on there.

"Alright, thanks Shelke. Do you know how long?"

_"The database doesn't say. Would you prefer if I hacked into the SOLDIER informational database? Most likely the information would be stored there."_

"If you can." Cloud felt a bit guilty for making her go through a process that wasn't strictly necessary, but then recalled how easily it was for her to break into the ShinRa system. She most likely could do it with her eyes closed.

_"A week, at the longest. It seems that it is some sort of contamination issue that he has been dispatched to fix."_

That almost sounded like a diplomatic mission.

There was a noise on Shelke's side of the line, and for a startling moment, Cloud thought it was Tifa calling her. But he shook his head. No. That must have been Elfe.

_"I have to go."_

"Okay. Be safe." He was halfway to shutting his PHS when her voice came through.

_"And Cloud…" _There was a brief hesitation in her voice. _"Are you… okay?"_

He blinked in surprise, then smiled. "Yeah. I'm fine."

_"Good." _Her voice came flatly. _"But don't think I haven't heard about your little expedition into the ShinRa ranks. The Director sent a frantic approval letter to the board about you-most likely it's been passed completely right now. I expect to hear what, exactly, you did to make them go over the top like this."_

Cloud paused. "Well, uh..." Luckily, Shelke seemed to have hung up with those final words.

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.

If Cloud thought just walking into the apartment where Sephiroth lived was hair-raising, sleeping in it was far worse. Every single noise, regardless of the fact that Cloud knew for a_fact _the General was miles and miles away, made his eyes snap wide open and his hand reach blindly for something—anything. After a few moments of his ragged breathing and the screaming silence, he'd ease back into a rigid, flat-backed posture on his bed.

He dozed off a bit in the earlier hours of the morning, but the moment there was even a subtle rattle of wind on the balcony, he bolted straight up and made for the sink, as if he'd never been asleep at all.

Cloud continued to remind himself that the man who killed Aeris, killed his mother, and had once embodied everything Cloud wanted to be, was miraculously gone from the apartment. Regardless, the entire place seemed to remind the blonde that, yes, in fact, the General was still alive.

He finished washing his face and moved toward into the main room, closing his door behind him. There were scuff marks at the bottom of the other one, and the handle was messed up; all signs of clear usage. Smudged marks on the fridge's handle, and Cloud retracted his hand from them, as if burned.

The blonde ex-Soldier now turned official Soldier was pondering on what to do when his PHS lit up.

Lazard had called him to the briefing room, where he'd explain the rules of ShinRa's missions as well as general company policy.

Cloud doubted that they'd let him get a mission on his own.

And he was right.

Zack was grinning like mad as the doors slid open, revealing a large chamber with nearly half of the back wall lit up in an enormous projector. Series of vision outlets surrounded the meeting table, and Lazard sat with his back towards the door, scrawling away on the keyboard. Zack looked like he was quite used to the Director's behavior, and was more interested in the fact that Cloud was his partner.

"Cloud!" Zack jumped, delighted. It was a bit bizarre that already he and Zack were good friends. "This is awesome! You're coming with me?"

"Actually," Lazard interrupted amusedly. "It would be you accompanying him. I'm sending the two of you down to deal with a handful of monsters terrorizing Sector 7. It shouldn't be too much of a problem—consider it something of a test run."

Cloud hoped that meant that they were watching Zack's progress to bump him up to First, but most likely it meant they were going to be scrutinizing _him _for the majority of the mission. Great.

Zack ushered him out into the antechamber, where he explained the freelance missions, generally training missions reserved for Thirds and Seconds, as well as the item system that Cloud found particularly useless. The boxes popped out different items to help on missions, and Zack was ecstatic with the Bolt he got. It was crude, and obviously manmade, and Cloud wasn't surprised that ShinRa was willing to hand it out for free.

Eventually the two made it down to the Sector 7 slums, Zack bristling and eager to test himself against Cloud. Cloud was more amused that Zack felt the need to do so at all—at one point, it had been completely the other way around.

It wasn't until they were passing a few familiar landmarks that Cloud stilled, intake harsh to his own years and breathing near stilled.

This was Sector 7.

Seventh Heaven was here.

Quickly his eyes darted to Zack, who looked non the wiser over his sudden realization, whistling as he tucked his sword onto his hip, looking like he actually enjoyed the scenery of the slums.

"Hey Zack,"

The Second turned.

"I think I see something over there."

"Where?" The Soldier whipped his head around, looking eager at the very thought.

"By the trash cans. You didn't see anything?"

Zack scoffed, "Course I did!" He interrupted brashly. "Did you see where they ran off?"

"Down the alley I think."

Obviously Cloud hadn't the slightest idea what he was even actually talking about, though considering Zack's brightened look it worked perfectly. As Zack bolted in the direction of his hand, him trailing half heartedly after the other, more eager Soldier, he pondered where, precisely, Zack got all his energy from. The guy carried them halfway across the globe, after all, and continued to talk to his comatose body all throughout it. He had to have some sort of monstrous reserve somewhere.

Two streets down and a good couple blocks away from Seventh Heaven, and Zack stopped to catch his breath, eyes darting around in dismay. "Sorry Cloud, looks like we lost 'em. Where do you think we should look next?"

"I'm not sure." Cloud shook his head. "They have to be close though."

Zack took off, luckily in the complete opposite direction of the bar, and Cloud decided to let him go. He could probably fake confusion and just explain to Zack he'd gotten lost. It seemed plausible, as Cloud was supposed to be new to Midgar. After a few alleyways, he made his way up the street where Seventh Heaven resided. It didn't look any different from the original, the one he stumbled into, the one still run by Tifa and Barrett. He wondered if the pinball machine still worked, and dropped down into the basement that AVALANCHE used as its headquarters.

It'd be best not to walk in there, though, especially when dressed in his SOLDIER garb. He doubted AVALANCHE—or Shelke—would appreciate him being so blatant.

He was just getting around to heading back towards Zack, after checking that Seventh Heaven was indeed safe, and by extension Shelke, when he ran straight into someone that most definitely didn't belong in the slums.

She was a Turk, obviously, from her dark blue suit. But she was so small and tiny that for a moment Cloud was a little struck by her stature, wondering if she could really do Turk-work that he was so accustomed to seeing Rude and Reno muscle out. There was steel to her eyes though, so perhaps she could. She blinked up at him through the fringe of her relatively short, curly brown hair, blue eyes looking clearly surprised. The expression was almost immediately smoothed off though.

"Sorry." He said, backing up.

"It's fine." She answered coolly, observing him. "Are you a… SOLDIER?"

"Evaluated yesterday." He answered. "Why are the Turks down here?" He asked almost immediately, a little shocked they caught on to AVALANCHE so quickly. How was that possible? Had they known the whole time? He'd have to warn Shelke…

"You know quite a lot for someone initiated _just _yesterday." The girl quipped wryly. "And I'm Cissnei, and for the record, I'm off duty."

Which was bullshit, because a Turk was _never _off duty, though he refrained from pointing this out. Best believe her to think him dim witted, and brush him off as just another brute Soldier. It'd be easier to see what she was up to that way.

"Oh." Was all that came out, though. "In the slums?"

She shrugged, and it was such a fluid movement that Cloud wouldn't have caught on to the lie had he not had more experience with the Turks then she thought. "I grew up around here." And then, "I think the better question would be; why are _you _here?"

"Mission." Cloud rebuked swiftly. "And I think I should be getting back to it."

"That would be wise." Cissnei appraised with one brow raised, giving him a wave as he took off.

He turned a corner to a familiar building, making for the stairs he knew he'd find. It helped to have the home field advantage—he recalled using these exact ones to spy on the street below long ago. They worked, and through one of the dirtied windows he watched Cissnei hurry off, phone to her ear, looking like she was getting in position for some careful watching of the Bar. That wasn't good. He hadn't any idea if the Turks were aware of AVALANCHE's position in the original timeline, and regardless if they did or not, it wouldn't bode well. He could only hope Shelke was aware of this, or he'd have to contact her again.

"Uh… Cloud?"

This was how Zack found him, crouched peculiarly on the stoop of a falling building, peering out of a cracked, dirtied window that hardly looked like one could see two feet out of it.

"Zack!" He turned around.

"Where'd you run off to?" Zack rubbed the back of his head with a laugh. "And why are you just sitting there?"

"I got lost." Cloud lied sheepishly. "And I thought I saw the monster, and it looked pretty big—figure I'd wait for backup."

The black-haired Soldier looked confused, and a bit skeptical, but he shook it off."Oh don't worry about it Cloud, I already took care of them!" Said Zack with cheer. "Ten Chuse Tanks, all by myself."

"Good job." The ends of Cloud's mouth turned up, as he stood. Zack waited for him at the bottom of the stairs, and the two made their way back into the street.

"You shoulda seen them, they were pretty fierce Spiky—mind if I call you Spiky? You've really got the hair for it—and had some pretty incredible teamwork. Being dimwitted monsters, and all."

Cloud was mostly bemused, and a little touched by the fact that Zack would come up with the nickname naturally all over again. It felt nice to hear the familiar endearment in Zack's voice. Zack's real voice, not just the faint echo of what Cloud used to remember as he watched his best friend through fragments of the lifestream.

He'd been a bit too caught up in the nostalgia to hear the rumbling from behind them as an entire building seemed to crash from the floor.

Cloud whirled around, as did Zack, just in time to hear the Soldier fearfully cry out behind him; "It's—It's a Behemoth!"

The giant beast roared into life in front of them, looking more enormous then Cloud recalled them to be. A King Behemoth? In Midgar? That was highly unlikely. But it was huge, bigger then the regular native Behemoth's. There wasn't really much time to speculate, and Cloud easily geared First Tsurugi for the challenge.

"Why don't you do the casting Zack?" Cloud called to him as he charged it, parrying the beast's teeth with the blunt edge of his sword.

The Second fumbled with his newly acquired Bolt, and began casting weak spells. Though it had more to do with the crappy low level materia then it had to do with Zack's casting abilities. Cloud hissed in frustration at the sheer size of the thing, obviously not prepared for anything other then going down here for some light monster slaying. He ducked under one of the claws, narrowly missing the swipe and bringing his sword up to slam into the side of the monster, which roared angrily and retreated a few paces.

He backed off as the Behemoth sulked to survey its injuries, and tossed Zack one of his fire materia. "Try one of those!"

This time, a streak of fire erupted past him, and Cloud leapt out of the way. Zack shook the fire out, looking both amazed and bewildered. He turned to Cloud with a gaping face. "That was crazy Cloud! Did you see that? ! What kind of Materia are you carrying?"

But Cloud ignored him in favor of charging the Behemoth once more, who made a half hearted attempt at fighting back. Zack's back up made it all that much quicker, and it wasn't long before Cloud ducked under the monster's guard and swung, slicing through it cleanly with First Tsurugi.

The entire battle must have lasted less the three minutes, and the only evidence it had even occurred was Zack's labored breathing, the intense skid marks that were still smoldering, and the now fading body of the monster.

Zack carefully underhanded Cloud's materia, holding it like it was a precious newborn child. Cloud only caught it with detached amusement.

"That's the strongest materia I've ever seen!" He exclaimed in wonder. "Is it mastered?"

Cloud nodded. "But that's not why it worked better. It's natural—the ShinRa issue materia are generally less effective then those found in the wild."

Zack tilted his head. "Is that why I don't cast as well as you do?"

Cloud shrugged. "I'm sure that's part of it." But truthfully, his mind was elsewhere. He was more worried over the Turks—but didn't know how to approach the subject.

The Turks were a faction of ShinRa completely to their own. The different between Turks and SOLDIERS was near palpable, and the chasm between them deepest when dealing with finding out their affairs. A SOLDIER could usually find out information through directly asking Lazard or one of their peers. However, to find out what the Turks were up to was a completely different story. He doubted even Heidegger knew what they were up to most of the time, incompetent fool that he was.

It was worth a shot though. "Zack, what are the Turks?" It was an innocent enough question, considering he was supposed to be 'new' to the company anyway. Surely guys had this question all the time.

The two were making their way back to the upper plate, and Zack scratched his head. "Well, uh, I guess they're… well, they uh…" He frowned. "They usually just clean up after us—that's all I've ever really seen them do anyway. I hear they do crazy stuff like kidnap people and do all sorts of underhanded deals for the President, though that's only rumors."

"And the President would let them do that?"

"Well, I suppose so. But I doubt any of that's true. I'm pretty sure they just investigate for missions and stuff and spy on enemies." Zack backtracked quickly, looking a bit apprehensive at the conversation.

Cloud wondered what it was about simply mentioning the Turks that always made Soldiers uneasy. Maybe it was the natural animosity that was supposedly bred between them?

Either way, they made their way back to headquarters without a hitch. After the conversation changed to other topics, Zack's mood seemed to rise to its usual jovial spirits, and he was near bouncing with his latest humorous anecdote as they rode the elevator up. Cloud himself was easing into relaxation, regardless of all the issues that seemed to be overtaking him like hurtling waves. It was easy to forget all the stressful problems he had when he was enjoying a casual stroll back with Zack. He wondered if this was what it would have been like had he made Soldier in the first place, had Angeal and Genesis never degraded, and Sephiroth, never backed into insanity.

His peaceful musings were shattered however, as was the general quite that the two had left ShinRa in.

There was a flurry of activity as the doors opened onto the Soldier floor, and Thirds and Seconds were rushing past them. Cloud blinked at them all, in bewilderment, as did Zack. The dark haired Soldier snapped himself out of surprise though, and called out to them.

"Hey! Guys! What's with all the running?"

No one answered him though, until some kid with a helmet skidded to a halt in front of the elevator shaft. "Zack!"

"Kunsel!" Zack greeted. Ah, so this was Kunsel, texting extraordinaire. "What's going on?"

"Didn't you hear? There was a Reactor meltdown in Junon—near the base! _No one _expected it, so everyone's kinda going crazy right now. They're saying a lot of people are injured or dead, some of them Soldiers! Everyone's running to get more information, they're shipping a lot of the guys back here… and apparently they're compiling a missing list."

Zack reeled, looking worried. "Wasn't Roy's platoon sent down there? Have you heard any word from them?"

"The whole platoon's here." Kunsel assured Zack, who breathed a sigh of relief. Cloud wished he could have joined him in comforting assuagement, however, Kunsel's next words put him into an unhealthy state of frenzy. "They came back with the General just a few hours ago."

Cloud paled.

Great.

The General was back.

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* * *

_I mean, we all knew this was coming. I made this part of the plot way before I even debated pairings, so any plot and or writing in the next few chapters was pre-made and is unbiased(: Sorry if it seems like there's yaoi ahead-there isn't. the next few chapters will be mostly platonic, until I figure out where the pairing part may come in, if it does at all._


	6. It was just a spoon

_So, as typical of me, my decision isn't really a decision at all. Obviously, I'm a very indecisive person. But, at any rate, VE will stay as it is-platonic. There will be many Seph Cloud scenes (seeing as though they are roommates...) but none in that sense. Although, to satisfy my sephxcloud love without butchering this plot, I ended up just writing an entirely new story. As of now, I'm calling it the Old Light, and it has absolutely nothing at all to do with VE. _

* * *

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.

At first Cloud had no time for this to fully sink in, as he immediately began a long winded message to Shelke explaining his first mission as well as the Turk he'd seen outside of Seventh Heaven. It was no coincidence, and Shelke said so much herself. She'd known about them, obviously, though Shelke explained she was not aware if AVALANCHE was as well. It was highly possible the environmental terrorists were completely oblivious to the well-trained Turks. Either way, Shelke insisted that it wasn't part of their affairs, and that she could take care of herself.

Cloud didn't see much of Sephiroth for the next few weeks. Rather, if he did, it was the scuff mark at the door mat, or coming home to the door already unlocked.

He never _saw _the man, but was certainly aware of his presence at every waking hour.

He did, however, see plenty of Genesis, as more often then not if he was on a mission that wasn't by himself, he was paired with either the dramatic first or a variety of troopers as back ups. Once, he and Zack had gotten another easy mission to exterminate some monsters down beneath the plate, which had been fun. But mostly, he worked alone.

But Cloud liked it that way.

He didn't have to hold back when he was by himself—no Turk watching from the one-way observation window, no army troops behind him staring wide eyed. No Zack to freak out and then insist on the blonde teaching him all of his, "ultra cool First class moves". Why the Second didn't just get Angeal, the First he hogged all the time to teach him them, Cloud didn't really know, but Zack always said it was because Angeal was too much of a stickler for the rules and would never teach him anything really interesting.

And while Genesis would much rather quote Loveless and divulge him of all his secrets (and occasionally, he wondered; his clothes too) the blonde could stand his presence as well.

In fact, Cloud would almost call them… friends?

Which was absurd, as Cloud was well aware of Genesis' fate, and he really shouldn't be making friends with people who were going to go batshit on the company and attempt to destroy the planet. Albeit that Genesis never got as far as Sephiroth did, but Cloud would prefer not to have to take down someone who meant as much to him as Sephiroth did.

And Genesis was becoming something close.

Closer then Cid or Reeve, but farther then Vincent. Perhaps accurately pinpointing the First's distance from Cloud would be aptly named in Barrett. Which was ironic, considering there was absolutely _nothing _the two had in common. For one, Barrett was a large black man with a turret arm, who couldn't stand useless poetic dramatics and especially couldn't stand ShinRa. Meanwhile, Genesis was lithe—although, still muscled. Just not… overly muscled—and pale like snow with fiery red hair, had a penchant for dramatics and a keen eye for detail. But Barrett would always listen to Cloud, and Cloud always felt he could talk to Barrett, who, in his bullishness, would never judge him.

Genesis, however, ripped the answers straight out of him. But yet, he still got the job done. He still made Cloud _talk._

He also managed to draw the blonde into the training room on an occasion or two.

"It's a wonder how you managed to master _all _that materia." There was something glinting in the man's eyes.

He was such a materia hoarder.

Oh hail Gaia if he ever met Yuffie. Cloud knew one thing; it'd be the apocalypse. Either they'd hit it off so well that the world would be robbed of all materia, or they'd attempt to destroy the other in their quests for obscene amounts of the crystallized mako. One way or the other, Cloud would have none and neither would the world.

Cloud shrugged. "I… fight a lot of monsters?"

Genesis plucked one out of First Tsurugi, tossing it up in the air once, twice, before releasing a fiery wall of red inferno. He watched it, looking feral and amused, before extinguishing the flames with a wave of his hand. "They react well too. Very smooth." And then, with a glance at their vibrant color. "Are these natural?"

"They're not ShinRa made." Cloud answered, by not answering at all.

Genesis noticed, and scowled, before tossing it back to him.

"You never seem to give me a proper answer." He noted duly.

"Perhaps you're just not asking the right question." Cloud answered mysteriously, wondering when he had started channeling his inner Vincent.

"I'm surprised your shadow hasn't shown up yet." The redheaded First remarked, dropping the conversation and started to pace around the blonde, who eyed him carefully. Just because Genesis could be considered something of his friend at ShinRa didn't mean Cloud trusted him in the slightest.

"Shadow?"

"Zack."

Huh. That was true. The Second had taken to following him around a lot. Cloud supposed he hadn't really noticed because Zack didn't really bother him. Never really could. It was the easy confidence about the guy, not arrogance, but also not a lack of self esteem—something which Cloud had always looked up to in Zack. He could charm a Bahamut into taking tea with his grandmother if he sincerely tried. But Cloud didn't know whether that meant that the Second was just very witty or just a genuine nice person.

"I'm sure he has better things to do." Cloud was pretty sure he was on a mission. "I'm not a very interesting guy." He added as an afterthought.

But Gaia, if he had known that the fastest way to get attention was shutting up and looking put off and brooding all the time, he'd never have bothered with fighting all those kids in Nibelheim or going off to the army.

Genesis watched him, eyes lidded. "You have your secrets." He reserved coolly.

Cloud shrugged, flipping First Tsurugi in his hand, the blade almost weightless in his palm. "Doesn't everyone."

"_Infinite, is the mystery of the Goddess."_

Cloud gave him a flat look.

Genesis smiled.

After a good two hours of repeatedly sparring, taking breaks in which Genesis subtly prodded Cloud for answers he wouldn't give, bantering, and then more Loveless quotes, Cloud had sufficiently worked up a good sweat and was ready to take down some monsters.

"I'm heading to the briefing antechamber." He told the First as he sheathed First Tsurugi in its harness.

"Going to take another mission?" Genesis panted, looking a bit exhausted but mostly in good spirits. "Save some for the grunts, you know. You're doing all of them."

Cloud shrugged. "What else am I going to do with my time?"

"Get a hobby!" Genesis called to Cloud as the blonde walked out of the training room.

He huffed.

Cloud was like talking to a brick wall. Although, he was a witty brick wall who always had a way to turn one's questions around, or remark with a question with his own, but still a brick wall for all the answers he ever gave out. After a couple weeks of knowing the blonde, of fighting him, Genesis found he knew more about the blonde through clashing blades with him then through talking. He favored his left hand—but he must have had some clear formal experience, as regardless, he held his sword with his right hand firm. He constantly left the shoulder with the gauntlet unguarded, and sometimes he moved as if he was expecting a phantom pain in his chest. Whatever he had fought in the course of his life, he fought it long and hard and with tooth and nail. There was something graceful about the blonde's artless quality of fighting. As if every moment was a struggle that decided the fate of the world.

And the blonde thought _him _dramatic.

Clearly Cloud wasn't a fan of fighting, if his style was anything to go by.

He fought like he wanted the battle to end. Genesis thought it ironic and a tad amusing that the blonde First had chosen being a Soldier as his career. He had mentioned something about a Delivery Service he used to run—obviously, he could always do that instead.

It'd be a waste of his innate talent, surely, but perhaps the man would enjoy it more.

Maybe not. Cloud kind of looked like there were few things he enjoyed—and whatever they were, they were long gone.

Genesis didn't know how long he sat there, musing on his new friend and enigmatic puzzle to solve, but Sephiroth had come in at some point.

The silver haired General took one look at Genesis appearance.

"Training with the air?" He questioned with a slight smile.

Genesis scoffed. "Hardly. It seems my partner has run out on me, however." He swung his rapier in a wide arch. "Care to join me?"

It had been a while since he'd fought Sephiroth.

The man had been mysteriously absent as of late, always holed up in his office, submerged underneath an ungodly amount of paperwork that could have sunk the Midgar plate. Genesis always told him to just get a secretary, but the man _insisted _on doing it himself. Sometimes Genesis wondered if he was a bit masochistic. If he wasn't scrawling his signature over papers, he was out on missions that seemed to take him globe trotting for weeks at a time. Surely, souring matters with Wutai weren't helping. Genesis couldn't even recall the last time he, Sephiroth and Angeal busted the Second's training room to have some fun with the VRS.

Now that the man was back, they should do that again.

Sephiroth swung in a broad stroke, Genesis catching it just in time, before retaliating. Blades clashed, parted, and met again.

Genesis didn't know how it was possible, but there was something about Sephiroth's style that reminded him of Cloud. But perhaps that was wrong. It was almost like Cloud's style _complimented _Sephiroth's. The General was very collective and analytical during battle, always maintaining his same temperament regardless of the situation (although Genesis had yet to see a time in which Sephiroth_ wasn't _in control). Cloud was almost the opposite, as if he was so accustomed to fighting against a steel defense that he fought erratically to oppose it.

It may be too early to tell… but, if he had to put money on it, he'd bet on Cloud.

When he voiced his opinion aloud, Sephiroth paused.

"Cloud…?" The General tasted the name on his tongue. It sounded lyrical, foreign. He wondered where it came from.

Genesis gave him a dubious look. "Yes, Cloud. Your roommate?"

Sephiroth blinked.

"Strife, you mean?"

"Yes, Strife." Genesis amended quickly. "Cloud Strife. He's the new Soldier First here. Bit of an uproar at that—oh, you missed that, didn't you? Got inducted straight into it, didn't have to take injections or anything. I hear there's a bit of a story behind it, but no ones talking."

Sephiroth digested this with a thoughtful look on his face.

"I wasn't informed of this…"

"Because you haven't _been _here." Genesis pointed out, a bit of abandonment in his voice at that.

Sephiroth's eyes softened. "And I'm sorry for that." And after a pause, "He's my roommate?"

"Has been, for the past couple weeks."

Genesis paused.

"You mean to tell me you _haven't met_ him?"

Sephiroth shrugged. "I was aware of his presence. The occasional locked door when I was sure that I had kept it unlocked. An unused water in the fridge… I think he left a pair of boots at the door once."

Genesis was watching him flatly. "You've never met him." Actually, the Commander looked bemused. "How is that possible?"

"We must be on different shifts." Sephiroth supposed.

"No, the both of you are workaholics, that's the issue. If one of you isn't working, the other is!"

Sephiroth looked unsure. "And he's a good fighter?"

"Beyond good." Genesis amended. "He surely fights like a trained Soldier First. Now where he found that strength, however," Genesis purred. "That is a different story I've yet to unfold."

"You speak of him like you've talked quite a bit." Sephiroth noted. "Are the two of you friends?"

"Acquaintances would be more apt."

Sephiroth seemed to ponder this.

"Perhaps it _would _be a good idea to meet him."

Genesis smiled generously. "You wouldn't regret it, certainly."

.

.

.

Shelke began to notice a shift in dynamic in AVALANCHE become clearer as the days seemed to pass.

Elfe was clearly the leader, while frightfully nonchalant and very level-headed, she was apt in battle—or so Shelke heard, as she had never seen the woman fight before—and very well versed in politics. Although considering that AVALANCHE's policy was usually blow up reactors first, make compromises later, she supposed the latter skill wasn't put to as good of use as it could have. Elfe had a good control of things, and Shelke made the correct choice in leaving her safety with the woman, who had a large heart and good intentions.

Or so Shelke had thought.

It wasn't Elfe that was the problem.

Nor was it Shears, who was something of Elfe's second in command. It was obvious to tell that Shears was five ways in love with Elfe. While it was a different matter entirely if Elfe was aware of this—she was a bit dense in those ways—it was clear that Shears would do anything for the woman, even join AVALANCHE. Even _leave _AVALANCHE, if it served a purpose to help her. It wasn't any of the other AVALANCHE members, who resembled much of who they would come to be when Barrett ran the group, kind and only wanting the best for the planet, and a little wary of using more necessary force.

As these were the only people Shelke saw in the first few months, she didn't notice anything wrong.

It wasn't until Fuhito strolled into the bar one day that Shelke was able to fully comprehend the tilted wires AVALANCHE was strung by.

She had been sitting in the back corner near the windows, idly fiddling with the hems of her dress and waiting for the connection upstairs to return. Sometimes when an upper plate train rattled the power transistors the connection slowed or halted completely, and it took a bit longer until they came back. She was planning her next dive—it had taken her quite a long time to finish her SND apparatus, and each dive took a toll on her energy, so she had to use them sparingly—when she heard Elfe's raised voice from across the room.

That in itself was some sort of beacon of apprehension. Elfe hardly, if ever, raised her voice.

This would count the first time Shelke had ever seen her do so.

A man was hovering next to her, looking empowering and a bit deranged, and Shelke immediately knew him as a scientist. An AVALANCHE scientist, then. She couldn't hear their conversation from such a lengthy distance apart, but she could take a mild guess.

There were few things that could cause the woman to elate to such levels of emotion.

It must have something to do with Zirconiade, or worse.

Shelke first and foremost was a researcher. She supposed it was her lot in life—certainly while she could fight, she would never be an Azul, a Cloud, or a Rosso—to gather information when no one else could. She'd become adept to it, and instead of spending most of her evenings on one of the stools, picking at her dinner and planning her next dive, she instead listened closely to the other member's conversations.

She knew previously from researching the Zirconiade back in the past (future) that Elfe had been the owner before it had been destroyed. Since the whole matter was Turk business, there was very little written down in the reports. But Tseng _had _stated that he had killed off Elfe and Veld. Whether this was true or not was up to one's own discretion, but all Shelke needed to know was that somehow, the powerful Elfe managed to become significantly weakened enough to be overpowered by someone else.

And from what all the AVALANCHE members were saying, this must be true. She was weakening.

This wasn't the worst of it, however.

Cloud had told her of his encounter with that gigantic Behemoth—that wasn't any real strange fluke of nature. Most likely it had been carefully tended to by AVALANCHE scientists as some sort of SOLDIER slaying beast, though obviously this was a useless idea, as Soldier's generally took down monsters all the time.

Elfe would hardly come up with such a stupid plan, so obviously, the leading of AVALANCHE and its affairs was being hefted to someone else. Someone Shelke thought to be Fuhito.

She narrowed her eyes.

That wasn't good.

"Elfe?"

Shelke peered down the hallway to where the woman's room was located.

No response.

"Elfe!"

Shelke stopped in the doorway, frowning. "That's strange." She murmured to herself. Elfe was hardly what one could ever call irresponsible, and always managed to holler when she was leaving the bar.

Shelke tiptoed down the stairs, careful not to wake any of the sleeping AVALANCHE members. A couple had returned, looking exhausted, and were snoring away in one of the guest bedrooms. The main bar was devoid of the woman as well, who sometimes bustled around behind the counter to keep herself busy. That scoundrel Fuhito was missing as well—no doubt residing underneath the bar in the main head quarters.

"Did she leave?" Shelke wondered aloud to herself, striding through the empty bar and whirring fans to the front entrance.

The stoop didn't look any different, a couple people meandering around aimlessly outside, looking weather worn but altogether normal. No sign of her loitering out here, either. Shelke frowned. Definitely strange. She grew increasingly worried as her mind supplied her with all the possible scenarios that could be happening right now. The Turks had been watching more cautiously lately—had that something to do with Veld becoming aware about the failing Zirconiade? Or perhaps they were getting in position to snipe them all down like dogs?

"—and you really think that—"

"—I have to. I don't want your—"

Shelke's attention snapped to the side, and she left the door to quietly pad across the front, sliding as silently as she could in these ridiculously civilian shoes over to the alley way she could hear Elfe's distinct voice from. Who was she arguing with, Fuhito? Perhaps it was something serious, and she should wake up an AVALANCHE member. There was no time for that, though, if Elfe was in any real danger Shelke would have to take care of it herself—how though, was the bigger issue. Elfe could likely handle her own but Shelke could never truly be sure, what with her biggest power supply steadily weakening and—

"Rufus ShinRa." Shelke surmised coolly, eyes blinking wide.

Young.

(or, younger, at that)

Certainly there was a more robust quality to his chin, and a rapt, more readable expression to his face. His lips disregarded their usual knowing smirk, and he had a look of intense fury as he gazed down at Elfe, who somberly watched him through the fringe of her hair.

Neither heard her, or saw her, and continued to argue in the back alleyway.

Huh. Rufus ShinRa.

But of course. He had always been one of the greatest beneficiaries for AVALANCHE. But why? Because he took such a keen interest in the environment? Obviously, as he wasted money carelessly and sat around in his tower with his lavish luxuries.

Elfe certainly had a way with men, didn't she? Shelke mused with bemusement.

Her cool surprise was shattered, however, as hands gripped her shoulder.

"Are you lost, little girl?"

Shelke looked up behind her, to see a pretty face staring back at her. A pretty face in a suit, at that.

She shook her head vehemently. "No."

The woman Turk looked altogether unimpressed, removing her hands to place them on her hips like some sort of motherly figure. How ironic, considering her job description. Shelke doubted there was a Turk out there that had it in them to be a proper parent. Honestly, look at Veld. The guy considered it to be getting his employees to stalkerishly watch his daughter from nearby windows. How queer.

The Turk pursed her lips, placing another hand on Shelke's shoulder. "Well why don't you run along, this really isn't something little kids should—

"Rui!"

But Elfe had already spotted her, and was walking over swiftly. Rufus trailed behind, looking quite put upon and face twisted as if he still had quite a few words to say. Shelke was most surprised, however, by the supreme amount of worry in the tightness of his jaw.

"You know her?" Rufus asked stiffly, as if he couldn't quite believe it himself.

"She's an orphan." Elfe cut him off snidely. "Her family ruined by ShinRa." She seemed to tag that on just to spite him. It seemed to work surprisingly well, as a brief look faltered in his eyes, before passing as quickly as it had come.

"You can unhand her, Cissnei."

She did so, taking a step back.

"Unless you have anything else to say," Elfe paused, baiting Rufus. "Then I'll be going. It's getting late, and I'm sure Rui's getting hungry."

But Rufus only inclined his head, before drifting off with Cissnei in tow, his dark hood blending in with the drab scenery of Sector 7. Elfe watched them go, silent as usual, before turning to Shelke.

The woman looked her over, and Shelke shifted at her narrowed gaze, wondering if she'd get reprimanded.

But Elfe only sniffed, obviously sparing her.

Though she didn't spare her the greatest shock of her lifetime.

"Looks like you've outgrown that dress. We'll have to get you a new one."

.

.

.

While Cloud's revelation was no less shocking, it happened less climactically.

Missions in ShinRa were generally like he'd thought them to be—extraordinarily boring. Most likely ShinRa was sending him out to do the 'grunt work', as Genesis so aptly put it, for a specific reason. Cloud supposed they just didn't trust him yet. And, granted, that was very perceptive of them.

He hadn't planned in staying in the apartment for long. Bad enough having to share a duplex with the man, let alone having to visibly see him. Loitering in that mine zone would only increase his chances of doing so, yet those were his accommodations for the time being, and there was little else he could do. The blonde was only stopping to change and grab a bottle of water when he spied it.

Sure, Cloud left stuff around all the time. It was easier to do so when Sephiroth wasn't even in the northern hemisphere, and he had the place to his silent, brooding self. But now that he was aggravatingly aware that somewhere in this building the silver-haired general resided, and he'd taken to leaving the communal room barren of any personal items. But it hadn't always been like that. Shouldn't he be giving Sephiroth the same entitlement?

But seeing that glint of metal at the bottom of the sink horrified him more then he'd like to think it did.

Cloud shivered.

It was just a spoon, for Gaia's sake.

But it was so _human. _So inane and insignificant and yet his mind was bending backwards to even think of it. He was probably late or something, or perhaps was just lazy in the regard of washing one's spoons. Cloud didn't know. In fact, didn't _want _to know.

Thinking of Sephiroth as human, not some warped, mindless puppet of Jenova—_frightened _him.

He turned away from the sink, trashing his water and heading right out the door. Standing in that falsely pleasant kitchen in that falsely pleasant room was making him a little sick. Contrary to Yuffie—and the general population's belief—Cloud had only killed one man. He never had the stomach for things like that, ironic considering the profession he had wanted so desperately for the majority of his years. And that had only been accomplished because Sephiroth had become so crazed he was little else then a monster himself. That, and he had killed Aeris, his mother, and was attempting to do the same to the entire world.

And then, _even _then, he felt the dull ache of pity for the man, and all that he had become.

To think of him now as human, his roommate even, would only make it that much harder.

It was only a stroke of good timing that his PHS rang at that moment, before his thoughts could continue to spiral out of control.

"Hello?" He answered, forgetting to check his caller ID.

"_Cloud." _Shelke breathed a sigh of relief.

The blond blinked. "Shelke?" It was surprising to hear her voice. It sounded… strange. She hadn't called in a few weeks, though sent the occasional update on AVALANCHE's affairs.

"_I'm in need of assistance."_

Cloud froze in the middle of the hallway. "What's wrong?"

"_Could you come to the main lobby?"_

His brows furrowed. "Sure…"

To say he was surprised would be an understatement.

It actually took him a moment to recognize why she looked so different, considering he hadn't seen her in so long. It wasn't the color of her hair, which retained its soft coppery brown., although it had lengthened to her shoulders. Nor was it her luminescent eyes, depicting the mako that ran through her veins. Though there was something to the shape of her face, the cut of her chin perhaps. And she seemed a bit…

"Shelke…" His eyes grew wide. "You…"

She smiled at him brilliantly, far more then he'd ever seen before.

"I figured it would be better to let you see it in person." Though a little bit of her had wanted to show off.

"Yeah—wow." Shelke had grown. He had always thought it an impossibility, she'd said as much herself, but to see it happen, after almost an entire decade of living in a child's body… he was happy for her. "That's fantastic."

She nodded, happily, before turning to the receptionist behind the desk.

"Excuse me, ma'am?" Her voice went up two octaves as she tugged childishly on Cloud's arm, dragging him towards the desk. "This is my brother—the one I was talking about."

He waved, a little awkwardly as Shelke blinked up at him with disturbingly doe like eyes.

The woman looked flustered, as if she had been attempting to catch Shelke in a lie. "Err—I'll need some identification please, sir."

Cloud fished out his room key, figuring it would be enough. He hadn't had to sit through an aggravating identification card process yet, an event which he hoped to postpone for as long as possible. He remembered doing a similar process for the SOLDIER preliminary exams. Remembered being so clearly enamored with the thing, regardless of how long it took to make it, like it was some sort of tangible dream.

Shelke looked a tad smug as the woman waved them through.

"I thought it was too dangerous to meet in person." Cloud hissed under his breath, recalling that it had been her idea in the first place. AVALANCHE wouldn't be pleased to find out that their beloved little orphan girl was fraternizing with ShinRa, and Cloud would have preferred for his fellow SOLDIERS to be aware of as little of him as possible. Not to mention that some yards under the stonework the very same girl beside him was undergoing a torturous mako process.

"There are some things I'm going to have to find out myself from here." Shelke lowered her voice as well.

They came to the elevator hall, and took one. Shelke pressed the highest number—obviously using this to buy time away from the cameras. "I can't access the information outside of a ShinRa computer. Do you happen to know where I could use one?"

Cloud pursed his lips. "They have some in the lounge, though I don't know about their security. I'm sure they're monitored."

"That isn't a problem." Shelke waved him off.

Cloud didn't doubt it. There wasn't anyone else in the world who could rival Shelke's brains, though it had taken this bizarre time traveling for him to realize it. And though she still embodied the frame of a young, albeit growing girl, she certainly didn't have the mind of one.

The elevators slid into a sleek, empty corridor. Cloud breathed a sigh of relief he hadn't even realized he was holding. He was happy to see Shelke, sure. But he was a little more content knowing that she was far away from the menacing, mako-monopolizing energy company's reach. Coming here may as well have been walking into the lion's den.

"What exactly are you looking for?" He asked quietly, leading her through blessedly deserted corridors.

"There isn't a clear access to Deepground outside of ShinRa," Shelke began quietly. "If there's even one here at all. To be honest, it's just a hunch I'm going on… and it's extremely selfish of me to do so."

Cloud swallowed thickly. "And what part of Deepground do you need access to?"

"Myself, mostly." She admitted. "Though lately, I've been finding myself wondering about Weis' conception as well. There's something not right with this…"

Whatever she was going to say was abruptly cut off, as, just as they were nearing the home stretch, a familiar voice greeted him.

"Cloud."

The blond turned around, feeling like someone had doused him with ice.

And so did Shelke.

"And here I thought you were going to hide yourself in your room to angst." Came the almost bemused voice. "And yet here you are—

The Commander was cut off, as his eyes locked with Shelke's.

He may have only spotted her out of curiosity. After all, ShinRa was hardly the kind of company that held to the take your child to work day friendly environment, and children were few and far between in these halls. He should have lingered, and then thought little of it.

In hindsight, Cloud should have seen this coming.

Though he had never been known for his mind, and had nothing on Shelke's uncanny perception, so technically, _she _should have seen this coming.

He'd been aware that Shelke, like most other Deep Ground operatives, had been experimentally tested using Genesis' G-cells. The same had happened to him to a certain extent, except with Sephiroth. Though to see the two of them, face to face, certainly took the knowledge to a new level. The two of them, aside from the height difference, could have been _twins. _A soft, chestnut coloring to the hair, the feathery way it sat on both of their heads. It made matters worse that Shelke had lost a lot of the cherubic baby fat that made her look so young, giving her a clearer look to her eyes and a sharper chin—one she seemed to share with the Soldier First. He and Sephiroth, while perhaps more alike in personality then he would ever, ever care to admit, certainly didn't look the same.

But he'd always thought that Genesis looked disturbingly like Shelke.

It was another matter entirely to see the two of them together.

"Uh—Genesis." Cloud attempted to snap them all out of the shock that seemed to jolt them. Belatedly, Cloud realized this was the first time he'd ever addressed the other first by his name. "This is my, uh, sister, Rui."

There was a moment when neither said anything, only staring unseeingly at the other.

"…hello." Her voice was so small it could have been mistaken for the AC. Their eyes hadn't left each other's. Both glowing an unnatural, yet exact shade of blue.

Genesis seemed to regain himself, pulling his to Cloud and shifting uneasily. "You never told me you had a sister." He accused of his fellow first, though there was less heat and more shock.

"…You never asked?"

Luckily, Shelke found this an opportune moment to use her body size to their advantage. "Cloud," She whined like a picturesque teenager. "Aren't you going to take me to get ice cream?" God, was she channeling Marlene somewhere in there? He'd never heard whining until he'd seen Marlene Wallace and her ice cream.

"Oh. That's right." He looked over to Genesis, who hadn't seemed to entirely have shaken himself from his reverie, as his eyes lingered on Shelke's form. "Do they sell that at the lounge?"

"I'd believe so." Said the Commander, though he looked like he wasn't really paying attention to the words out of his mouth.

Their eyes met again, briefly, before Shelke tugged, with quite more force then necessary. Cloud actually stumbled a bit, giving a hasty farewell to the red headed Soldier before near diving around the corner. Shelke let go of his hand soon after that, pace slowing down to a more manageable walk. Cloud couldn't see her eyes, overgrown bangs hiding them from view. He could only guess what was going through her head.

_Stupid._

She definitely should have saw that, the young woman berated herself. After all, it was no secret that all deep ground operatives were made using G-cells.

It seemed the more she uncovered of herself, the less she became aware of. How much of her was actually Shelke Rui? And not just mutilated mako and spliced Genesis cells? For Gaia's sake, out of all of the Tsviets, she'd never even questioned why she looked the most like him. Seeing the man in person, standing in front of him, only seemed to solidify that.

The worst part—she and _Shalua _didn't even look that alike.

She stared blankly ahead.

Would she and Shalua even be considered sisters anymore? Or was her DNA so butchered that, were they to ever take a test, it wouldn't show a positive match? Or, she thought a little bitterly, would it do so if she were to take one with Genesis?

"Shelke…" Cloud called worriedly.

But she brushed him off." I should have foresaw that." Said the Tsviet, flatly. "I apologize."

"No—it's fine." Cloud blinked. "Are you alright?"

"I'm perfectly fine." Physically, anyway. Mentally, she'd been more then a little shaken up. "I have always had an understanding of my genetic makeup—and how closely it pertains to that of Project G."

"Not that much, huh?"

Shelke's gaze slid to him. It was a lot easier to act more machine then human; almost a subconscious defensive way of shutting the world out. But Cloud didn't deserve that. "No." She decided upon, finally. "I certainly hadn't… expected such an uncanny resemblance between the two of us. Obviously our cell structure is more alike then I had first thought."

And Cloud only knew all too well what that felt like, standing in the middle or reunion, wondering who the hell he was. Tifa, Denzel, AVALANCHE—they grounded him. What did Shelke have, aside from a handful of memories and a dead sister? Vincent, maybe. But considering his brooding, mulish personality, that wasn't much.

They emerged into the Soldier lounge. The open space near the windows still had a few open desks with computers free.

"If anyone asks," In retrospect, they should have come up with some sort of alibi long before this situation ever arose. "I'm your younger sister who lives at boarding school—we haven't been in contact in months and this is the first time I've been able to see you."

Cloud nodded. "Anything else?"

"I'll be performing an unobtrusive net dive—if you need to contact me, do not do so physically." She held up her phone, which Cloud found bizarre. "Call my PHS."

Though it made some sense. If her mind was going into a computer, jarring it physically would probably short circuit her brain or something.

With that, she settled into one of the computers backed against the wall. The only present company she had was a pair of seconds two rows down, snickering at some video.

He made his way over to the cafeteria area, almost floored by the amount of flavors they had. Half of them he didn't even know. The blonde gave a discreet look at Shelke, who, aside from being the only young girl, seemed to have blended in rather well. Most likely she was crushing through all of the firewalls those ShinRa techs tried so hard to build… But surely they weren't dumb enough to leave out some sort of hack warning system?

Cloud blew a raspberry.

Would Genesis think anything of their resemblance? He had no reason to, Cloud pointed out to himself. The blonde had no reason to be this paranoid. Rui was his 'sister' who attended boarding school. Regardless of if she looked like she should be related to Commander Rhapsados and not to him, he doubted anyone would question it.

It didn't make him any less uneasy, though.

* * *

_Good plot twist, I hope? XD Shelke is definitely growing on me.._


End file.
